Collection of Sephardic Torah Scrolls Finds Home at San Diego State U.
Before Maimoniides: A Torah scroll in an Italian library was thought to date to the 17th century. Turns out, it?s much older than that.
A collection of Torah scrolls and maps was donated to San Diego State University by a private donor.
The collection includes more than 70 Torah scrolls and Torah fragments that are hundreds of years old, from around the world – including Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey and Morocco, according to the university.
Donor Howard Singer, who is a member of the university’s Parent’s Association, said he spent about 13 years amassing the collection, searching for and purchasing the artifacts while traveling on business for IBM, according to the university.
“So many of the Torahs I bought are beautiful and in some cases, where the scrolls are written on animal hides, the processes used for making these has been lost,” Singer said. “Even today, when you look at them, the artistry and craftsmanship is almost a lost art because they’re very old, and yet they look like they were done yesterday, which is just amazing to me.”
The collection is worth nearly $500,000, according to the university.
The university said its library staff will now spend time researching, preserving, and cataloging the collection, and then determine the best ways to display the items.
“As a research collection, it’s magnificent, but as a collection where students can see something 400 to 600 years old and look closely at it and participate with it, it’s even more incredible,” said Robert Ray, head of Special Collections and University Archives, said.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
