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Major Judaica collection amassed by Yemenite Jewish butcher donated to the National Library of Israel
(JTA) — The National Library of Israel has announced the acquisition of 60,000 Yemenite Jewish manuscripts and text fragments which made up one of the most significant private collections of Judaica in the world.
The massive collection was donated by the descendants of Yehuda Levi Nahum, a butcher who died in 1998 after spending more than 50 years meticulously acquiring and studying the material. It includes Judeo-Yemenite translations of works by the medieval intellectual giant Maimonides, and writings by Yihya Saleh, a leading 18th-century rabbinic law scholar from Yemen, as well as ancient Jewish marriage contracts.
“This important collection is a transformative addition to the library’s documentation of Yemenite-Jewish heritage that will enrich scholarship in this field for years to come,” Chaim Neria, the curator of the Judaica collection at the National Library, said in a statement.
David Selis, a research fellow at Yeshiva University specializing in modern Jewish cultural history, compared the famous collections amassed by the bibliophile Elkan Nathan Adler and the Sassoon dynasty.
“It’s the largest Hebrew manuscript collection assembled since the early 20th century, and the most comprehensive Yemenite manuscript collection ever assembled,” Selis told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The news is also significant because of the contentious history shared by the National Library and the Yemenite Jewish community. Thousands of books, manuscripts, and cultural artifacts were stolen from the community during and after their voyage and absorption in Israel, in some cases by the government representatives entrusted with shepherding the community from Yemen. Many items ended up at the National Library, which refused in almost every case to return the books to their owners.
“It would have been better that alongside efforts to preserve the manuscripts and and make them accessible, the library would also discuss and acknowledge the theft of Yemenite manuscripts during the community’s mass immigration to Israel, and clarify its role in the matter,” Rafi Shubeli, a Yemenite Jewish activist in Israel, wrote in a Facebook post.
The collection was handed over last Thursday on a date coinciding on the Hebrew calendar with the anniversary of the death of Shalom Shabazi, the 17th-century Yemenite poet and rabbi.
The unlikely story of this accumulation of Jewish literary riches begins a century ago in the town of Sanaa in Yemen when Nahum was an enterprising young teenager.
Born to a family with limited means, he had saved up some money by selling candy and clothing. At age 14, he convinced his parents to allow him to leave the country and travel hundreds of miles to the Holy Land, according to a biography on the website of the Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society, which helped digitize Nahum’s collection.
It was 1929, long before the eventual mass emigration of Yemenite Jewry.
Nahum traveled by donkey for two weeks from Sanaa to the port town of Aden, where he sold the donkey to pay for boat fare to get to Port Said, Egypt. From there he took a train to Jerusalem in Mandatory Palestine and eventually settled in Tel Aviv.
As a young man, he decided to dedicate his life to the preservation and Yemenite Jewish heritage. He sought to highlight the cultural vitality of his community in the face of condensing racial stereotypes that were prevalent among the Ashkenazi majority at the time.
Earning a living as a butcher, he spent his free time collecting handwritten books. He started by writing to his parents in Yemen requesting items; they didn’t arrive until 1949 with Operation Magic Carpet, which brought the bulk of Yemenite Jewry to Israel. Later, he visited the immigrant camps and acquired books from the new arrivals.
Realizing that many books were bound using the paper of older books, he took apart the covers and discovered ancient manuscript fragments, amassing 15,000 of the items in the collection in this way.
Nahum kept the collection at his home in the town of Holon and hosted scholars and dignitaries. Israeli presidents Zalman Shazar and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (also a historian who sought to import important Jewish texts to the new state) among his visitors. He was a scholar as well as a collector and published nine books based on his research of the texts.
Many of the most significant items in the collection have been cataloged and digitized over the years, but the National Library believes that many more gems in the collection are awaiting discovery by future scholars.
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The post Major Judaica collection amassed by Yemenite Jewish butcher donated to the National Library of Israel appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.