Research

The Judaic Studies Program is committed to advancing transformational research in the field of Jewish Studies. GW is home to the distinguished Kiev Collection, a comprehensive selection of more than 28,000 rare books and artifacts from Judaica. And our faculty and alumni are prolific contributors to contemporary scholarship in Judaica.

Since 2017, the Judaic Studies Program has hosted the Jewish History Colloquium, convening faculty, students and independent researchers working in the field in the Washington, D.C., area.

Faculty Books

Jewish History Colloquium

Special Collections and Collaborations

The Kiev Collection

GW houses the I. Edward Kiev Collection, a unique collection of Hebraica and Judaica that spans more than five centuries and includes more than 28,000 volumes of books, periodicals, Jewish graphic art, manuscripts and archival documents. Established in 1994, the collection is housed in the Kiev Room of Gelman Library on Foggy Bottom Campus. The Judaic Studies Program encourages students and guest scholars to apply for the Kiev Judaica Collection Research Fellowship, which is designed to fund short-term scholarly research, creative or educational projects informed by the Kiev Collection. Contact Shelly Buring at GW Libraries for details.

Kiev Collection Gallery

Jewish Heritage Video Collection

The Judaic Studies Program maintains the Jewish Heritage Video Collection, which supports teaching about Jewish life, history and culture. The collection was a gift from the Charles H. Revson Foundation. Contact the program for details.

Several bookshelves inside the Kiev room

Guess Speakers at the Mayberg Center's event "Conversation that Matters"

Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership

The Judaic Studies Program collaborates with the Mayberg Center, an educational laboratory that advances community-based scholarship in the field. The center provides graduate-level training and professional development for Jewish educators, supports research and hosts events. The Mayberg Center is housed in the GW Graduate School of Education and Development.

GW Libraries Research Guides

GW Libraries provides a guide to general research materials and reference resources in Judaic Studies as well as materials and resources in Holocaust Studies. Gelman Library is also the home of the I. Edward Kiev Collection. Contact our dedicated Judaica librarians for help with research guides and archives.

Poster for a performance by Vayberische Melukhe in New York in 1914

Gallery: From the Kiev Collection

Browse a sampling of the extensive Kiev Collection's treasures, or visit the complete Kiev Collection catalog on the GW Libraries website.

All images: I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection, Special Collections Research Center, George Washington University Libraries

Die Haggadah Des Kindes (Haggadah for Children)

Illustration with movable parts depicting baby Moses on the Nile in A.M. Silbermann’s Die Haggadah des Kindes. Berlin: Menorah, 1933.

Open pages of the book "The Rabbi of Bacharach" by Heinrich Heine

Title page of Der Rabbi von Bacherach, a novel fragment by Heinrich Heine, with Expressionist woodcut frontispiece by Joseph Budko. Berlin: Euphorion, 1921.

A print of people standing under a sukkah

Copperplate engraving by Johann Georg Puschner of the Jewish festival of Sukkot. From Paul Christian Kirchner’s Jüdisches Ceremoniel. Nuremberg: Peter Conrad Monath, 1724.

Self-portrait of Art Nouveau illustrator Ephraim Moses Lilien reproduced in Stefan Zweig’s E.M. Lilien, Sein Werk. Berlin: Schuster and Loeffler, 1903.

Black and white illustration of Emma Lazarus on the first page of a book

Frontispiece portrait of Emma Lazarus, one of the first successful Jewish-American poets. The Poems of Emma Lazarus. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1889.

A print depicting crowds of people playing at tables, labeled "die fasnacht oder das spiel-fehlt" (Game Night)

Copperplate engraving by Johann Georg Puschner of games for the Jewish festival of Purim. From Paul Christian Kirchner’s Jüdisches Ceremoniel. Nuremberg: Peter Conrad Monath, 1724.

An illustration of a person riding a camel through a field, with farmers and a sheepherder standing nearby

“Next year in Jerusalem” from A.M. Silbermann’s Die Haggadah des Kindes. Berlin: Menorah, 1933.

Woodcut tailpiece ornament from Hillel ben Naphtali Tsevi’s legal commentary Bet Hillel. Dyhernfurth: Shabetai Bass, 1691.

A print of a woman wearing a long veil and jewelry

Copperplate engraving from Augustin Calmet’s An Historical, Critical, Geographical, Chronological and Etymological Dictionary of the Holy Bible, in Three Volumes. London: Knapton, 1732.

Illustration of a Jewish woman going to the synagogue

Copperplate engraving from Augustin Calmet’s An Historical, Critical, Geographical, Chronological and Etymological Dictionary of the Holy Bible, in Three Volumes. London: Knapton, 1732.

An illustrated pattern of stars with raised hands

E.M. Lilien’s ornamental endpages showing hands raised in the priestly blessing from poet Morris Rosenfeld’s Lieder des Ghetto. Berlin: S. Calvary, 1903.

Second Union Hebrew Reader: A Manual of Instruction in the Language, History, and Principles of Judaism

Joseph Krauskopf and Henry Berkowitz’s Second Union Hebrew Reader. Cincinnati: Bloch, 1884.

Sheet music from 1897 of Bar Kochba, an opera by A. Goldfaden, arranged for piano by H.A. Russotta. New York Publishing Co.

Songs from Bar Kochba, a Yiddish operetta by Abraham Goldfaden, arranged for piano. New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1897.

Pages of a Hebrew book with an illustration of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea

Illustrated 18th-century Passover Haggadah in Hebrew and Yiddish. Hagode shel Peysakh. Offenbach: Tsevi Hirsh Segal Shpits and his son Abraham Segal, [1795?].

A page from an illuminated incunable dating to 1486 Venice

Leaf from a hand-illuminated Latin incunable (or early printed book) edition of Josephus’s De Antiquitate Judaica. Venice: Ioannes Vercellensis [Giovanni Rossi], 1486.

A 1924 book page written in Hebrew, produced by H. Berthold AG, one of the largest type foundries (producers o

Hebrew type specimen book (or font catalog) leaf. H. Berthold, Schriftgiessereien und Messinglinienfabriken Aktien-Gesellschaft. Berlin: Berthold, 1924.

A Yiddish journal cover with Hebrew writing at the top and an illustration of a red bird surrounded by flowers

Milgroym, a Yiddish journal of arts and letters. Berlin: Rimon, 1922.

Illustration of a young girl digging in a flower garden with a bird in a tree above

Illustration from Masaʻ ha-dag, a Hebrew children's book written and illustrated by Tom Seidmann-Freud with translation by Hayim Nahman Bialik. Berlin: Ophir, 1924.