Judaica Holdings in Woodstock

For a theological research library in the Christian tradition, the Woodstock Theological Center Library holds a surprising wealth of Judaica. This is not only true of basic texts and commentaries related to the Hebrew Scriptures, but also in general reference and in background reading of Jewish tradition. Since the inception of the library in the late nineteenth century, the Judaic collection has grown systematically.

Several rarities have been obtained over the years, including an illuminated Jewish marriage document which is dated in Pisa, Italy, 1790. This document is on extended loan to the Jewish Memorial display in the Leavey Center, Georgetown University. At the Woodstock Library itself, there is on permanent display a Torah scroll which seems to have been made in east Europe by a young scribe in the early nineteenth century. The scroll was given to Woodstock in 1871 by Francis J. Barnum, who subsequently entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1880.

The basic collection of commentaries and background material contains several thousand volumes in the regularly circulated books. Because of the nature of the volumes, different editions of the Talmud are found in the reference section: E. Goldschmidt's Der Babylonische Talmud (10 volumes); C. J. Kasowski's Thesaurus Talmudis: Concordantiae Verborum (18 volumes); Thesaurus Mishnae: Concordantiae Verborum (4 volumes); J. Schachter's Hebrew-English Editions of the Babylonian Talmud (25 volumes to date); and I. Epstein's The Babylonian Talmud (35 volumes). All of these are in addition to standard sets of the old and new Encyclopedia Judaica. Naturally, there are many volumes on Hebrew Scripture, with commentaries, that are not specifically contained in the Judaic collection. Among the rare books there can be found Hebrew Scriptures in the Polyglot Bibles, as well as texts in Aramaic.

The library also has Soncino's Talmud Yerushalmi (8 volumes), the Warsaw, Blackman and Giessen editions of the Hebrew text of the Mishnah; the Neusner translation of The Talmud of the Land of Israel (35 volumes to date); the Soncino Press edition of translations of The Midrash (10 volumes); The Zohar (5 volumes); J. M. Wise's English translation of The Babylonian Talmud (10 volumes); K. H. Rengstorf's Rabbinische Texte, comprising the Tosefta (6 volumes to date); Tannaitische Midrashim (1 volume); and A. Wunsche's Bibliotheca Rabbinica (5 volumes). It has all the main publications of the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as hundreds of secondary sources on them.

In periodicals, the library has a complete run of the Jewish Quarterly Review (old and new series) as well as complete runs of the Hebrew Union College Annual and the Journal for the Study of Judaism (volumes 1-23). Incomplete runs include the Journal of Jewish Studies (volumes 30-42).

The Woodstock Library originated and remained for 100 years at Woodstock College outside Baltimore, the site of the Jesuit seminary. Moved from that site temporarily to New York, the library came to Georgetown in 1974 and by a 1990 agreement will remain here in perpetuum. It is housed on the lower level of the Lauinger Library.