Hi there,
We hope you all are safe and well wherever you are. Thanks for participating in our 5,000+ volunteer community of #GenizaScribes! We wanted to share resources for learning more about Cairo Geniza research from our team and partners.
#FragmentFriday on Twitter
Dr. Marina Rustow, director of the Princeton Geniza Lab, has been putting together some Twitter threads for #FragmentFriday, including:
- A long vertical scroll with an equally long social history
- A 12th-century court record addressing medieval Samaritans
- A rhyming set of gripes about visiting ports on the Red Sea
These have been grouped together for easy reading via the Thread Reader App, but you can follow Dr. Rustow directly on Twitter at @mrustow for more fascinating histories.
If you’re looking for more Geniza deep dives, check out the Fragment of the Month from Cambridge University Libraries. The July 2020 edition, written by Dr. Ben Outhwaite, head of the Geniza Research unit, explores an 11th-century letter that inspired the 2016 novel The Convert by Stefan Hertmans.
Seforimchatter Podcast
The latest episode of the Seforimchatter podcast featured Dr. Eve Krakowski, assistant professor of Near Eastern Studies and the Program in Judaic Studies at Princeton University. In it, Krakowski discusses the Cairo Geniza, its history, its uses today, and much more. The Seforimchatter podcast is dedicated to the discussion of Seforim (holy texts and works pertaining to them), Jewish (non-sacred) Books, and Jewish History. You can find the podcast on a variety of platforms, or listen to this episode here.
After reading through these exciting links, you can join us in classifying and transcribing Cairo Geniza fragments at scribesofthecairogeniza.org. Note: This project is also available in Hebrew and Arabic. To switch, use the language toggle in the top right of the page.
As always, thanks for your help,
The Scribes of the Cairo Geniza Team