From the Ends of the Earth Exhibit

The U.S. Library of Congress, is a treasure trove of the world's great civilizations. Among its treasures are books and manuscripts which record the spiritual and cultural creativity of the Jewish people.

From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress was the second major exhibition for the Project Judaica Foundation. From the Ends of the Earth broke all previous exhibit attendance records at the Library of Congress in its over 200 year history.

The Library of Congress' first documented Hebrew book was a 17th century Hebrew-Latin tractate of the Talmud sold to the Congress by Thomas Jefferson in 1815. The Library has continued to acquire Hebraica material since, and has become one of the foremost centers for the study of Hebrew and Yiddish material.

The exhibit is divided into different areas. The section on "The Book of the People of the Book" presents the greatest and most important editions of the Bible in Hebrew and other languages, and what these tell of the life of the Jews among nations. "The Sea of the Talmud and Some Shores It has Touched" deals with the central role of the legal tradition in Jewish civilization and its influence upon other cultures. Moses Maimonides, a Renaissance man three centuries before the Renaissance, is shown in "from Moses to Moses.." as the exemplar of the Jew living creatively in two civilizations and, as a student of the law, a philosopher, a physician, influencing both.

The exhibit is enhanced by classic maps of the Holy Land, printed, illustrated, and illuminated. "Adding Beauty to Holiness" presents illuminated Megillan scrolls (Scroll of Esther read on holiday of Purim) and ketubot (Jewish wedding contract) as well as a selection of illustrated editions of the Haggadah (the story of the Jews leaving slavery from Egypt, read on the holiday of Passover), crowned by the renowned "Washington Haggadah," a premier example of the art of Medieval manuscript illumination.

A gathering of prayer books, rich in the variety of rites, translations, and commemorations of historic events is entitled "Enthroned in Praises...." Books and manuscripts recording the Jewish people are found in the section "Witness to History." The two fold Jewish interest in "The World About Us and the World Within Us" is documented by illustrated Hebrew books on science and by books and manuscripts on Kabbalah , the "science of the soul." In its contemporary, secularized unfolding, this millennial dual interest portrayed in the works and words of two of the 20th century's most creative seminal theorists, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud.

"In the New World" introduces the Jewish experience in America. What the birth of the United States meant to the Jews in Europe, and what American Jews meant to America is shown in a section on the birth of the nation, and includes manuscripts from Presidential papers of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Lincoln. The character of the Jewish contribution to America's cultural and religious life can be glimpsed in the careers of Mordecai M. Noah, Isaac Lesser, Isaac M. Wise, and Emma Lazarus.

The exhibit pays tribute to Jewish creativity in music in "Break Forth in Melody" a medley of holograph manuscripts of works on Jewish themes by Jewish composers, Meyerbeer, Halevy, Bloch, Milhaud, Copeland, Bernstein, and Gershwin.

This exhibition presents a wide array of materials - books, manuscripts, objects, prints - that portray the civilization of the Jewish people, its ideas and ideals, its views of the world, and its interactions with it. It charts the spiritual and cultural creativity of the Jewish people over four thousand years in both the Old and New Worlds. "From the Ends of the Earth" shows the importance of the written word in recording and transmitting Jewish life and thought, the unique historical evolution of the Hebrew printed book and illuminated manuscripts, and the role of the Library of Congress in obtaining and preserving Judaic treasures for future generations.

The Foundation and the Library of Congress are currently exhibiting the traveling version of From the Ends of the Earth. The national tour will continue throughout 1997, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and Cleveland, Ohio. Each city hosting this exhibition is in for an exciting experience!

The major volume by Rabbi Abraham Karp, From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress has become a classic in the field of cultural Jewish history with fascinating references and reproductions of letters from Presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, to the American Jewish community, along with other glimpses of both Jewish and American history. Proceeds help the Foundation to provide assistance to the Hebraic Section of the Library of Congress.