"So, what did the Muslims do for the Jews?"

Professor David Wasserman argues that "in 570 CE, when the Prophet Mohammad was born, the Jews and Judaism were on the way to oblivion. And second, the coming of Islam saved them, providing a new context in which they not only survived, but flourished, laying foundations for subsequent Jewish cultural prosperity - also in Christendom - through the medieval period into the modern world."

David Wasserman is the Eugene Greener Jr Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. This article from the Jewish Chronicle is adapted from last week's Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Piecing together the Cairo Genizah: new technology aims to reunite fragments

The American Friends of Tel Aviv University report on a project currently underway at Tel Aviv University to piece together digitally the fragments from the Cairo Genizah that are currently scattered among 70 institutions worldwide, including Cambridge, Jerusalem and New York
Visit their website to find out more about this project, that involves using technology based on facial recognition software to identity digitized fragments belonging to the same text 

Stock moves : Jewish studies

All large and standard sized books on Jewish studies have been moved to their new location on Level B of the Library
These comprise:

• QI - Biblical studies
• QJ - Palestine / Israel (in Western languages)
• QN - Hebrew (ancient, medieval and modern)
• QO - Jews and Judaism
• QPA & QPB - Yiddish and Ladino (selected titles only)

Reference books for these subjects are still on Level C for the time being, but will be relocated to Level B shortly.

Early Bibles (Hebrew & Christian): digitized texts

The Aleppo Codex Online gives access to a digitized copy of the oldest existent manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, dating from about 930. The online copy contains all the surviving pages of the Codex and is both browsable and searchable.
There are also linked articles about the history and significance of the Codex from the 10th century to the present day.
The website is hosted by the Ben Zvi Institute for the study of Jewish Communities in the East (Jerusalem)

The Codex Sinaiticus gives access to a digitized manuscript of the Christian Bible, dating from the 4th century. It is handwritten in Greek. The New Testament in the original vernacular (koine) and the Old Testament is in the early Septuagint version. Both documents are heavily annotated by early commentators.
Click on the "see the manuscript" tab to view the pages and transcription of the Greek text, and to browse and search the document. Background material on the history of the manuscript is also included.
This project was the result of international collaboration to reunite the previously scattered pages of the manuscript

Both links will shortly be added to SOAS Library online resources.