Portrait of a people: the Jewish Heritage Collection dedicated to Mark and Dave Harris

Abstract

The Jewish Heritage Collection was a gift made jointly to the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and the University Library, which aptly reflects the comprehensive and unique nature of this collection. This collection combines materials traditionally found in libraries (e.g., books, pamphlets, printed ephemera, and manuscripts) with objects of museum quality (artwork and historical artifacts) and an assortment of items of humbler nature used in everyday life. The curators have chosen several themes around which to organize the display, in order to demonstrate both interesting items from the collection and topics for study it can easily support. The full Portrait of a People Online Exhibit follows a brief biography of Constance Harris and an excerpt from her book, The Way Jews Lived. as well as essays on how the collection was assembled and how it will be used written by the Elliot Gertel and Erica Lehrer.