Exhibition Tours | Jewish Worlds Illuminated

On View September 17, 2025 – December 27, 2025

In Person Tours: Monday, September 29 at 12:00 PM, Monday, November 3 at 3:30 PM, Sunday, November 16 at 1:00 PM, Monday, December 1 at 12:00 PM, & Sunday, December 14 at 1:00 PM

Special Sunday Hours: 10 am – 5 pm | October 19, November 2, November 16, December 14

Jewish Worlds Illuminated features over 120 manuscripts and books offering a world tour of Jewish literary creativity across many centuries and thousands of miles. The exhibition explores the diversity of cultures in the lands in which Jews resided, including Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, Yemen, Iraq and Iran, Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. Curated by Professor David Kraemer and Sharon Liberman Mintz and drawn from the important rare book collection of The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary, exhibition highlights include a fund-raising letter signed by the great rabbi and philosopher, Moses Maimonides; a monumental decorated prayer book for the Jewish High Holidays, created in Germany in 1290, which opens with an elaborate Gothic portal inviting the reader to enter and engage in the prayers; a richly illustrated Passover Haggadah from Renaissance Italy by the master scribe-artist Joel Ben Simeon; and a 1875 Haggadah from Baghdad, written in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic. Made possible by support from the David Berg Foundation and the Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation.

Registration

Please RSVP to garantee our attendance. Grolier Club members should RSVP via the Grolier Club website.

Support

We appreciate your interest in the Grolier Club’s programming on the art and history of the book. For over 130 years we have offered our exhibitions and lectures to the public, free of charge. If you have enjoyed these offerings, and would like to support that tradition, and help ensure that it continues, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Grolier Club.

Accessibility

An ADA-compliant lift from street level to the lobby is available to anyone with mobility issues. All desk staff should be ready and able to assist you in operating the lift, with or without advance notice.

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