Genizah
Videos
A genizah is a storage area in a Jewish synagogue or cemetery designated for the temporary storage of worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics prior to proper cemetery burial.
A genizah at the Narkeldanga Cemetery, in Kolkata, India.
Containers for paper recycling (left) and genizah (right) in Ramat Gan
Modern genizah collection receptacle in Israel. The small opening at the front is for disposal of worn-out tefillin and mezuzot.
Cairo Geniza
Videos
The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled the Cairo Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the genizah or storeroom o
Genizah
…illegibility or old age). The tradition of paper-interment is known to have been practiced by Jewish communities such as Morocco, Afghanistan, and Egypt. The Talmud (Tractate Shabbat 115a) directs that holy writings in other than the Hebrew language require genizah, that is, preservation. In Tractate…
A document with Babylonian vocalization
The latest Ben Ezra Synagogue, rebuilt between 1889 and 1892
Solomon Schechter at work in Cambridge University Library, studying the fragments of the Cairo Genizah, c. 1898
A letter signed by Abraham, the son of Maimonides