TCU to host David Price celebrating rare book collection

TCU Mary Couts Burnett Library and The Program in Jewish Studies at Brite Divinity School
Will present a special program celebrating the rare Judaica books collection when Professor David Price speaks on “Christian Hebraism and the Survival of Judaism: Two Perspectives,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, in the Gearhart Reading Room of TCU Library
David H. Price, professor of Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, History, and History of Art at Vanderbilt University, has written widely on the history of early modern Europe. His current research projects pertain to Christian-Jewish relations during the period 1500-1789, as well as to the Bible in Renaissance visual art.
After receiving his Ph.D. from Yale University, Wright has been a professor at Yale, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of books and articles on a variety of topics, including Renaissance theater, Latin poetry, Renaissance visual art, the English Bible and the history of Christian-Jewish relations.
Among his recent books are “The Works of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim” (2015), “Johannes Reuchlin and the Campaign to Destroy Jewish Books” (2012), and “Albrecht Dürer’s Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation and the Art of Faith” (2003).
Generously supported by the Louis and Frieda Cristol Endowment for Academic Programming in Jewish Studies
All interested are invited to tour the rare Judaica collection before the lecture. Please meet at the East entrance to the library at 5:50 p.m. Free parking is available at non-reserved TCU lots after 5 p.m.
—Submitted by
Hollace Weiner, Fort Worth Jewish Archives

Centuries-Old Hebrew Books on Display at TCU

An exhibit of 500-year-old Jewish books and Talmudic tractates will be on display at Texas Christian University April 2 through May 22 in the Special Collections section of the campus library.
These rare books, exquisitely illustrated and printed in Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin, were among a trove of 10,000 books that the university purchased from an aging Cincinnati scholar in 2001. At that time, TCU’s Brite Divinity School was establishing a Program in Jewish Studies and acquired the books as the core of its Judaica collection.
The exhibit, which is free to the public, is opening in conjunction with a guest lecture at 7 p.m. April 2, from Vanderbilt University Prof. David H. Price. He will speak in the library’s Gearhart Reading Room on “Christian Hebraism and the Survival of Judaism: Two Perspectives.” The Louis and Frieda Cristol Endowment for Academic Programming in Jewish Studies is sponsoring the lecture.
The Judaica exhibit includes a tractate from the Talmud dealing with the holiday of Shavuot. It was published in Venice in 1526 by pioneer printer Daniel Bomberg, a Christian whose template for laying out multiple Talmudic discussions on the printed page is still followed.
Another Bomberg manuscript in the exhibit is Yalkut Shimoni, a midrashic anthology on the bible. This artistically printed piece of literature from the Bomberg press was published in Venice in 1566.
Also in the display are works in Latin by Johann Buxtorf, a 17th-century Swiss scholar of Hebrew. Although a Protestant, Buxtorf was dubbed a “Master of the Rabbis.” Among his books in the exhibit is a thesaurus of Hebrew terms.
The director of the Jewish Studies Program at Brite is Dr. Ariel Friedman, the Rosalyn and Manny Rosenthal Associate Professor of Jewish Studies. The rare books, gathered by the late Rabbi Israel Otto Lehman, was purchased by the program’s founding director Dr. David Nelson.
—Submitted by
Hollace Weiner, Fort Worth Jewish Archives

Briefing on Israel

Gidon Ariel, founder and CEO of Roof Source, an organization dedicated to promoting respectful relationships between pro-Israel Christians and Jews, will brief the Tarrant County Jewish community on Interfaith relations, Israel elections and other topics at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 4, at Congregation Ahavath Sholom, 4050 South Hulen St.
Gidon made aliyah from Queens, New York, when he was only 14 years old. He spent close to a decade in advanced Jewish studies institutes (Yeshivas) and the Israeli Army. After 20 years in the Tank Corps, today he is a Reserve Officer in the IDF Spokespersons Office. A pioneer in Jewish-Christian relations, Gidon is a seasoned Hebrew and Judaism instructor and public speaker.
Gidon is a delegate to the Central Committee (the Merkaz) of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party and he ran for the Maale Adumim City Council. He is married with five children, and they live in Maale Hever, a suburb of Hebron in the West Bank, where he moved with his family in 2012.
The program is free, but please RSVP to Debby Rice, at 817-706-5158 or rice.debby@gmail.com.
Co-sponsors of the program are The Fort Worth Chapter of Hadassah, Southwest Jewish Congress, The Jewish Federation of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, Congregation Ahavath Sholom and the Martin Hochster Post of the Jewish War Veterans.