The Price Library of Judaica’s acquisitions program concentrates on the following major divisions of Jewish Studies to support the breadth and depth of the teaching program at the University of Florida’s Center for Jewish Studies:
- Judaism: broadly interpreted to include Jewish theology, rabbinical literature, Jewish classical texts and commentaries, liturgy and customs, religious law, mysticism, movements and sects, relations with other religions, homiletics, philosophy and ethics, rabbinic biography, and synagogue history.
- Jewish history: a far-encompassing field spanning 4,000 years of Jewish life in Palestine, modern Israel, and all countries of the Diaspora, with emphasis on the major population centers of Western and Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, North America, and Latin America. Sefardica, Palestinography, community history and demography, anti-Semitism, Zionism and Jewish-Arab relations.
- Holocaust studies: with a particular emphasis on Jewish life in the aftermath of the Holocaust (e.g., community memorial books) and the historiography of the Holocaust.
- Israel studies: with emphasis on the pre-State period synonymous with Turkish rule and the British Mandate, and more selectively (yet broadly) for the modern State of Israel in its social, and cultural aspects. English-language materials are preferred for more general treatments of Israel for use by undergraduates, while works in Hebrew are selectively chosen for specialized yet non-technical treatments of Israeli life seldom covered by English-language materials. Literature on the Palestinian Arabs in Israel and the Occupied Territories (Gaza, West Bank) may be found in both the Price Library and the “Main” collections.
- Bible studies: including texts, commentaries, and criticism of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament); biblical history, theology, institutions, personalities, geography, archaeology, etc., provided the works are informative of the growth and development of early Judaism and the Jewish people in the Biblical period and/or said works are from a Jewish perspective or written by authors in the mainstream of scholarly research. Works of a Christian doctrinal or devotional nature, or by authors writing primarily for a non-Jewish audience in the fields of Old and New Testament are typically acquired for placement in the Libraries’ “General” collection. The Price Library continues to collect in the fields of Apocrypha, the literature on the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran community, Essenes, etc.
- Jewish languages: including Hebrew language and linguistics, Hebrew literature (original and works in English translation), Yiddish language and literature (rare and scarce volumes are sought to complement the existing collection, and linguistic studies of Yiddish and Yiddish literary criticism), original works in and studies of Ladino, Aramaic, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Italian, Hakitia, Samaritan, etc. (which may support broader ethnographic, interlingual, or sociolinguistic research).
And the following geographically centered studies, as part of the Libraries’ NEH Challenge Grant to support cross-disciplinary research:
- Latin American and Caribbean Jewish studies: encompassing a broad range of materials (primary and secondary) relating to the Jewish experience within these regions. Multiple languages, but mainly Spanish, Yiddish, Hebrew and English.
- Florida: Floridian Jewish history, and primary and secondary materials produced about or by Jews living in Florida from the colonial period to present day. Multiple languages, but mainly English, Hebrew, Yiddish and Spanish.