Israel and Germany Collaborate on Online Archive

By Maya Sela February 18, 2011

Crossposted from Haaretz

Soon you’ll be able to read the personal archives of Martin Buber and Gershom Scholem online. Hundreds of medieval manuscripts, scores of personal archives and many other materials retained at the National Library in Jerusalem will be digitized, as part of a joint project by the Israeli and German governments. The materials will then be made available on the Internet.

As the two governments are particularly interested in highlighting points of encounter between the Jewish and German cultures, the project will focus on literature documenting German-Jewish culture of the past thousand years. Digitized documents will include copies of Hebrew manuscripts produced in Germany in the Middle Ages and held today in the National Library, as well as rare Hebrew books and newspapers.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO