One of the things that has been in my mind throughout the last six months in particular was for how long Jewish and Islamic culture thrived side by side over the past hundreds of years—hopefully this conflict is a short break in a longer story of coexistence. Our final stop of the day was at the brand new National Library—a gorgeous new building that just opened last fall where we were graciously hosted by the Head of Collections, Dr. Raquel Ukeles.
Student Elliot Dosetarah described the highlights for him:
On our first day of the trip, we had the unique opportunity to visit one of Jerusalem’s greatest and newly remodeled landmarks, the National Library of Israel. Originally established more than 130 years ago, the National Library’s new construction opened just weeks after the October 7th massacre and has quickly become a place of solace and reflection for visitors of all faiths and backgrounds, for a nation that finds itself in bitter turmoil and war. Holding over 5 million copies of books, the National Library boasts the world’s largest collection of Judaica, with rare manuscripts, texts, and artifacts from around the world, many of which date back over a millennium. Our group was privileged to be taken on a tour by world-renowned scholar and expert, Dr. Raquel Ukeles who specializes in comparative Judaic and Islamic law and literature. Dr. Ukeles mentioned that what made the National Library truly unique was that it wasn’t just a building filled with millions of books, but it was a space that held several unique narratives and told a story.
One of the most fascinating exhibits which Dr. Ukeles highlighted to us, which brought this message home for me, was a Jewish manuscript from early 12th century Iran of a single weekly Torah portion, which as discussed, is rather rare to see. This is because the Torah portions are either usually written as a combined single book of Genesis or Exodus for example, or of all Five Books of Moses together. Yet, as Dr. Ukeles pointed out, this style was highly indicative of the fact that Jewish texts at the time were influenced by Islamic culture as Islamic text were often written in shorter passages, as can be found in Suras of the Quaran that Muslims read on a daily and weekly basis.
We also saw visual images from Islamic manuscripts that centralized the importance of Jerusalem, which were initially first found in ancient Jewish texts, dating back to the Books of the Hebrew Prophets that romanticized a time of true peace and salvation that will come about from Jerusalem. As someone who is extremely interested in learning about the relationship and commonalities between Judaic and Islamic tradition, it was remarkable to see this historical and cultural dialogue right before my eyes and recognize that these conversations have existed between the Jewish and Islamic faiths for over a millennia. My hope is that these cultural and religious dialogues can be revitalized in society at large, as peace builders continue to bridge the divide between our two great faiths and bring greater understanding and connections between our peoples.
