Rabinowitz, Louis M.
Owner Id00023761
TypePerson
GenderMale
Biographical dates - Period of existence1887-1957
Activity
Start (year)1943
End (year)1957
NoteLouis Mayer Rabinowitz became Yale’s great friend and benefactor as a result of a visit to the university in 1943 when he presented to the Yale library a recording of speeches by Wendell Willkie, Al Smith and others. Until then, his main interest was art collecting but librarians at Yale and particularly James T. Babb, the University Library, encouraged him also to buy books and manuscripts. From there on in, he became an avid collector, and his extraordinary gifts to the Library helped make Yale a major player in the world of rare books and manuscripts. Rabinowitz’s greatest contribution-though by no means his only one-to Judaic studies in the Yale library is the Judaica collection of the Yiddish writer,Sholem Asch. He purchased Asch’s collection in 1945 and presented it to the University. Yale also received with the gift several manuscripts of Asch’s own writings. The Rabinowitz/Asch Collection, as it came to be called, contained about 330 items of incunabula (books printed before 1500), 16th century imprints, first editions of important rabbinic works, magnificent illuminated ketubot (marriage contracts) and megilot (Scrolls of Esther) from Italy, and early editions of important works in Yiddish. Among the ketubot are several from the 18th and early 19th centuries from the Modigliani family. Other treasures include a group of illustrated manuscripts built around the statement in Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 4:17 that three crowns were given to the Jewish people: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of kingship. However, the crown of a good name is above them all. Leon Nemoy, Yale’s first curator in charge of Judaica and the curator at the time of the gift, called these documents, ketarim (crowns) because there is no other genre in which to include them. They stand alone as artistic representations of spiritual values and they are among the most beautiful documents in Asch’s collection. Included in the gift are 7 incunabla. See: http://campuspress.yale.edu/judaicacollection/2013/11/04/louis-m-rabinowitz-1887-1957-a-major-benefactor-of-the-yale-judaica-collection/
See also: Charles Seymour, "Louis Mayer Rabinowitz", Bulletin of the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University
Vol. 23, No. 3 (Sep., 1957), pp. 10-14
MARC Area Coden-us
Profession / Type of InstitutionBusiness
CharacterisationNo characterisation/lay
Last Edit2018-07-27 15:40:09