Izmir was a centre of Sephardi learning, printing and rabbinic writing. Its rabbinic book collection is one of the most important parts of the community’s movable heritage.
- Holdings: around 2,000 books
- Earliest: 17th century
- Rescued: from 1999; catalogued by Dina Eliezer
- Now held: the former Jewish Hospital, Karataş
The collection
The collection holds around two thousand books, some dating to the seventeenth century. Many were rescued from neglected schools, yeshivot and synagogues across the city. It points to a learned world that cannot be understood through buildings alone: marginal notes, ownership marks, worn bindings and repeated use all carry traces of the people who studied and prayed here.
The books were printed in many cities, among them Izmir, Istanbul, Salonika, Jerusalem, Venice, Livorno, Amsterdam, Vienna, Prague and Warsaw, a reminder of how connected Izmir was to the wider Jewish world. Izmir also had its own printing houses, beginning with Abraham Ben Yedidiah Gabbai in 1654.
Rescue and study
The collection came to wider attention through Dina Eliezer, a Jewish educator from Izmir, who in 1999 found the books at risk from damp and a failing roof in a room of the former rabbinate. With the community’s support, she compiled a catalogue recording the year and place of printing and each book’s location. In 2002 the Avi Chai Foundation studied the heritage of the Jews of Izmir and reported on the collection. More recently, specialists connected to the National Library of Israel have examined the books and their marginalia.
The repository, now on the upper floor of the former Jewish Hospital, still needs care and support to protect it for the future.
For researchers
Researchers interested in the rabbinic library should begin with the public resources and then make a clear enquiry through Contact. Please include your topic, timeframe, affiliation if relevant, and the kind of material you hope to consult.