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Collections at UT with Jewish Studies Materials

Scholars from across the world, as well as UT students and faculty, visit our campus collections to do research on a wide range of Jewish topics. Here is a preview of some of the many rich collections and resources UT has to offer. Explore our full Guide to the Collections for a more detailed view of Jewish Studies materials here at UT.

 

Library and Archival Resources

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Dolph Briscoe Center for American History 

The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History houses several significant manuscript and family collections of Texan Jews. For example, The Texas Jewish Historical Society Records, 1824-2015 include extensive documentation related to the settlement and history of Jews in Texas. The Briscoe Center also holds various documents by and about Jewish individuals, organizations, societies, and synagogues in Texas, such as The Henry Cohen Papers, 1850-1950 that document the career of Henry Cohen, an influential rabbi known for religious and social activities in Galveston. Other materials include the Radin Community in Lithuania Collection, 1930-2005, which documents East European Jewish life. The material was collected and donated to the Briscoe Center by Dr. Frank Kasman of Midland, Texas.  Dr. Kasman also endowed the Schusterman Center’s The Kasman Family Lectures on Eastern European Life and Culture.

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Benson Latin American Collection

The Benson Latin American Collection includes rare Argentine Yiddish theater and literary materials from the 1930s and 1940s, as well as works by several Jewish Latin American authors and playwrights, such as Carlos M. Grünberg, César Tiempo, and Jacobo Fijman. The Benson also holds recordings of Jewish music from Latin America, among them a collection of music by Moroccan Jews who immigrated to Brazil. Other rare items include yearbooks and commemorative books by Jewish organizations in Peru, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.

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Harry Ransom Center

The Harry Ransom Center holds extraordinary manuscripts and other collections of Jewish writers, photographers, performance artists, and intellectuals such as Isaac Bashevis Singer, Norman Mailer, Albert Einstein, Gertrude Stein, Arthur Miller, Leon Uris, Stella Adler, and Arnold Newman. Norman Mailer’s archive is the largest personal archive at the HRC. The HRC also has an expansive collection of Commentary Magazine, the leading postwar journal of Jewish affairs after WWII. The South African Judaica Collection includes 485 rare volumes belonging to Jewish refugees from Europe, and the Gottesman Collection of Hebraica & Judaica includes 1,300 rare first editions, prayer books, Bibles, Mishnas, and Talmuds dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Together with the Schusterman Center, the HRC offers fellowships to support short-term residencies for researchers working on Jewish topics.

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Perry-Castañeda Library

The Perry-Castañeda Library has a wide-ranging collection of Jewish historical, literary, religious, and other printed texts. The PCL holds a number of major Jewish Studies and Hebrew journals, Yiddish-language newspapers, and a large collection of Yizkor books printed after the Second World War. Jewish displaced persons periodicals from the archives of the YIVO Institute, Holocaust materials from the Wiener Library in London, and Yiddish books can also be found on microfilm.

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Fine Arts Library

The Fine Arts Library contains a sizeable collection of Israeli films, books on Jewish artists and musicians, Israeli art, Holocaust art, and books on Yiddish and Jewish theater in the United States and Europe. The Historical Music Recordings Collection includes a number of recordings by Jewish composers.

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Antisemitism Resources

SCJS Disclaimer: The materials on this website are informational only and do not necessarily express the views of the SCJS.

The Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies offers education, support, and acknowledgment for Jewish students, faculty, and staff at the University of Texas at Austin, many of whom have been directly impacted by antisemitic rhetoric and acts. Antisemitism is on the rise—in Austin, in Texas, and beyond. In October 2021, antisemitic banners were unfurled over a local highway, and swastikas were found graffitied at a local high school. In November, the foyer of Congregation Beth Israel in Austin was set on fire. In December of last year and January and February of this year, residents in Austin and Houston found antisemitic flyers in their mailboxes and on their driveways. And on January 15, 2022, an armed terrorist took hostages in Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas because he believed that Jews control the government. These acts targeted Jews specifically. The most recent FBI Hate Crime report (2019) found that though Jews are only 2% of the US population, they are the victims of 60% of religion-based hate crimes. These statistics chart starkly the everyday experience of Jews in our city and on our campus. The recent acts of antisemitism in Austin, in Texas, in the United States, and throughout the world are a reminder of the vital importance of the mission of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies to promote a deeper understanding of Jewish cultures and histories—and of the antisemitism, racism, and xenophobic hatred that continues to impact our city, state, country, and world. As a safe and supportive space for Jewish students, faculty, and staff at UT, the Schusterman Center acknowledges their lived experience of antisemitism as well as the long history that feeds it. We loudly and clearly denounce antisemitism. (Issued Friday, February 18, 2022)

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Schusterman Center Publications

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Other Resources

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Latin American Jewish Studies Association

The Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA) serves as a network for scholars who are working on related themes but who are geographically distant from one another. Members maintain contact with one another through the electronic listserv “LAJSA-List,” the News & Announcements on the website, regional and international scholarly conferences, and the online publication Latin American Jewish Studies, which carries critical reviews of new scholarly work, brief articles, interviews, and abstracts. Our members and subscribers include major research libraries as well as individual scholars and others with expertise in the field of Latin American Jewish Studies.

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Eastern European Jewish History

Eastern European Jewish History is a UT-based website exploring the rich history of Jews in Eastern Europe through photos, testimonies, blogs, and reading lists.Enter your paragraph text here.

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Guide to the Collections

A Guide to the Collections highlights in detail the variety of Jewish Studies materials available at UT Austin.

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