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At a book-lovers’ mecca, a celebration of the Jewish Diaspora
On the left side of the ground-floor gallery at the Upper East Side’s Grolier Club — an institution that bills itself as “America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles” — you’ll find elaborately decorated, centuries-old Jewish manuscripts from the likes of Italy, France and the Iberian Peninsula.
On the right, there’s a similar assortment of manuscripts, also organized geographically. These manuscripts are remnants of dynamic Jewish communities that once existed in Muslim lands such as Yemen, North African and Iran/Iraq.
Collectively, these works form “Jewish Worlds Illuminated: A Treasury of Hebrew Manuscripts from The JTS Library,” the first-ever exhibition dedicated to Jewish books and manuscripts at the storied club, which was founded in New York City in 1884.
On view through Dec. 27, the free exhibit is also the largest exhibition to date curated by the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, which is home to one of the world’s largest collections of Hebrew manuscripts and printed materials. Among the 100 objects on view are documents that date as far back as the 12th century.
The elaborately decorated works on display comprise a wide assortment of texts, such as prayer books, Passover haggadahs and ketubahs or Jewish marriage contracts. Most of them are written in Hebrew. But there are some stark differences between the two sides of the gallery: Human forms are plentiful in the manuscripts from Europe, for example, while works created by Jews in Muslim lands typically reflect the Islamic art style, with elaborate patterns, floral motifs and very few depictions of people.
“Jews adopted and adapted the art of the country in which they lived,” Sharon Lieberman Mintz, curator of Jewish art at the JTS library, explained during a private tour. “When Jews were living in Islamic lands, they eschewed figural arts. There may have been a bird or two here and there, but not humans, with rare exception.”
Examples like these spotlight the ways Jews lived their lives throughout years of diaspora, and how they integrated themselves within their culture of residence.
“If you look at the outstanding works in our collection — manuscripts in particular, but not just manuscripts — [they] reflect the geographical distribution that you see here,” said David Kraemer, the Joseph J. and Dora Abbell librarian and professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at the JTS. “It is notable, but not intentional, that we don’t have material here from the land of Israel.”
Kraemer continued: “What that means is that during the ages that these works were being produced, and from which they survive, this is where Jews lived,” he said. “Very, very few Jews lived in the land of Israel, and there was very little production of this kind of material in the land of Israel.”
Left: Abraham Judah ben Yehiel of Camerino’s “Rothschild Mahzor,” from Florence, Italy in 1490. Right: A page from “Sermons and Collected Teachings,” from 17th-century Salonica, Greece. (Courtesy the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary).
Instead, the exhibit is filled with treasures from across the centuries and around the globe, including handwritten letters from the physician, rabbi, philosopher and author Moses ben Maimon — aka Maimonides. One such letter, penned in 1170 by Maimonides’ personal secretary, Mevorakh ben Nathan, is signed by the sage himself. It pleads for funds to ransom the Jews who were taken prisoner in November 1168 when the crusader king Amalric I of Jerusalem conquered the Egyptian city of Bilbeis, some 50 miles north of Cairo, which was home to a sizable Jewish community in the Middle Ages.
“So much of what happens, Jewishly, in North America is Ashkenazi-centric, which misrepresents Jewish life and history around the world,” Kraemer said. “When Ashkenaz was barely a blip, the vast majority of the world’s Jews lived in Muslim lands.”
The exhibit makes it plain just how embedded Jews were into the countries in which they lived. In the Italy section, there’s a page displayed from the Rothschild Machzor, a prayer book written by master scribe Abraham Judah ben Yehiel in Florence in 1490. An illustration depicts the children of Israel receiving the Ten Commandments as they’re decked out in the Florentine fashions of the time — with the receding hairline that was all the rage in during the Renaissance.
“When you look at these materials, you can’t just think of Jews as separated and isolated and ghettos and oppressed and all that kind of stuff,” Kraemer said. “That’s not what the story here is.”
Instead, the exhibit spotlights how Jewish communities reflected broader cultural trends, including fashion and art.
Just don’t ask the curators to select their favorites. Kraemer and Liberman Mintz both blanched when asked to choose three or four standout items in the gallery. Instead, we settled on finding particularly unusual works on display.
“The answer changes every five minutes,” Kraemer explained.
As an example, Kraemer points to a 17th-century manuscript from Salonica, Greece that he describes as “absolutely wonderful in its outrageous combination.” The page, from a collection of sermons and teachings, is a scholarly theological discussion — specifically, about how Moses, who was flesh and blood, was able to ascend to the realm of God, who is pure spirit. By contrast, the illustrations on the page — animals, birds and flowers — seem like something from a children’s book.
“Don’t we all somehow have those sensibilities built into us?” Kraemer mused. “We can be very, very sophisticated and very, very simple and childlike at the same time.”
All told, the exhibit, said Kraemer, is meant to challenge misconceptions about how Jews lived their lives during centuries of diaspora life.
“We have a lot of conceptions of what Jewish life was through the ages,” Kraemer said. “When one witnesses these materials — their splendor, their creativity, their embeddedness within the local culture, their languages, the visual language, all of that — it tells us that Jews and their neighbors were part of the same world.”
“In a world which has a very black and white vision of Jewish life and the relationship of Jewish life to the host cultures, this brings color to it,” Kraemer continued. “It wasn’t black and white. I mean both literally and figuratively — this brings color to the fullness of Jewish experience.”
“Jewish Worlds Illuminated: A Treasury of Hebrew Manuscripts from The JTS Library” is on view at The Grolier Club (47 East 60th St.) through Dec. 27. For more information, click here; to book a tour (highly recommended!) click here.
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Oxford Student Arrested Over Viral Antisemitic Chants, Sparking Outrage, Concerns Over Campus Antisemitism
An Oxford student is seen chanting antisemitic slogans at a pro-Palestinian march in central London, an incident captured on viral video that has drawn widespread condemnation. Photo: Screenshot
An Oxford University student has been arrested and suspended after a viral video showed him chanting “put the Zios in the ground” at an anti-Israel demonstration — an incident that has sparked public outrage and heightened concern over rising antisemitism on university campuses.
As part of a police investigation into chants at a Palestine Coalition march in central London on Saturday, local authorities arrested a 20-year-old student on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.
The student, identified as Samuel Williams, a philosophy, politics, and economics major at Balliol College, has been suspended by the university pending further investigation.
Local police confirmed that Williams remains in custody after being arrested on Wednesday for allegedly leading antisemitic, anti-Israeli chants captured in viral social media videos.
The day after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel went into effect in Gaza, Williams was filmed at an anti-Israel protest leading a crowd in antisemitic slogans, telling demonstrators the chant had been “workshopped” in Oxford.
“A steadfast and noble resistance in Palestine and in Gaza to look to, to be inspired by and — I don’t want to yap for too long — but a chant that we’ve been workshopping in Oxford that maybe you guys want to join in,” he says in the video.
“It goes ‘Gaza, Gaza makes us proud, put the Zios in the ground,’” he continued.
pic.twitter.com/rKwKtHlurp
Listen to what the “best and brightest” are chanting at Oxford University.
An Oxford student proudly shares a chant they’ve been “workshopping”:
”Gaza, Gaza, make us proud, put the Zios in the ground.”This isn’t education; it’s indoctrination into…
— Yossi BenYakar (@YossiBenYakar) October 12, 2025
“Zio” is an antisemitic slur brought into prominence by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. While the term, derived from “Zionist,” has generally been deployed by white supremacists and other far-right extremists, it has more recently been used as well by anti-Israel activists on the progressive far left to refer to Jews in a derogatory manner.
Williams can also be seen in the video leading a crowd carrying signs that read, “Oxford University, pick a side: justice or genocide,” in an apparent effort to erroneously accuse Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and to blame the school for being complicit.
The university confirmed the student’s arrest and said it was taking appropriate action in response to the matter.
“The University of Oxford condemns, in the strongest possible terms, any language urging violence against groups of people or expressing any form of racial hatred,” a university spokesperson said in a statement.
“While the university cannot comment on individual student cases, it has the power to take immediate and proportionate action including, as appropriate, suspending a student from membership of the university, whenever serious concerns are raised,” the statement read.
“Oxford University is unequivocal: there is no place for hatred, antisemitism, or discrimination within our community, and we will always act to protect the safety and dignity of our students,” it continued.
This latest incident came after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week warned that the government may consider stricter protest laws, potentially targeting chants at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, amid an increasingly hostile environment toward the local Jewish community in Britain.
Starmer strongly condemned the incident, accusing the university of acting too slowly to tackle antisemitism and safeguard Jewish students.
“Universities should not be places where Jewish students fear even attending, in some cases avoiding university altogether and the education they are entitled to, or, if they do attend, feeling concerned about their identity and how they will be treated,” the British leader said in a statement.
British Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson also condemned the incident, saying there had been an “unacceptable increase in antisemitism” at universities and noting that many Jewish students do not feel safe on campus.
She also announced that the government is funding training to help staff and students “tackle this poison of antisemitism” and called on universities to strengthen protections for Jewish students.
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France Angry at ‘Arbitrary’ Prison Sentences Against Citizens in Iran
A woman walks past posters with the portraits of Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French citizens held in Iran, on the day of support rallies to mark their three-year detention and to demand their release, in front of the National Assembly in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. The slogan reads “Freedom for Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris.” Photo: REUTERS/Abdul Saboor
France condemned on Thursday the lengthy prison sentences given to two of its citizens for espionage, saying the charges were unfounded and the punishment arbitrary.
Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris have been detained since 2022, among dozens of foreign and dual nationals held by Iran in recent years, often on spy-related charges.
Rights groups and Western nations say they are being used as bargaining chips, which Iran denies.
“I would like to spare a special thought for our compatriots Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who have been detained for more than three years in Iran,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux told reporters.
“Both were arbitrarily sentenced just the day before yesterday to very long prison terms. The charges against them, whatever they may be, are completely unfounded. We call for their immediate release.”
The semi-official Fars news agency said on Tuesday the two had been sentenced, despite Paris and Tehran indicating progress in talks to release them a week ago.
Without specifically naming Kohler or Paris, the court sentenced one French citizen to six years in prison for spying on behalf of France, five years for conspiracy to commit a crime against national security, and 20 years for assisting Israeli intelligence services, Fars reported.
The other was handed 10 years in prison for spying on behalf of France, five for conspiracy, and 17 for aiding Israel.
France has repeatedly protested about their case, saying Kohler and Paris were in conditions akin to torture in Tehran’s Evin prison and had been denied proper consular protection.
Iran has denied those accusations.
Tehran, in turn, has accused France of arbitrarily detaining Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian student arrested this year over anti-Israel social media posts.
An 18-year-old French-German cyclist arrested this year, Lennart Monterlos, was released last week by Iran after a court acquitted him of espionage charges.
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Israel Blames Hamas for Violating Ceasefire Over Deceased Hostages While Preparing Rafah Border Reopening
A view of destroyed buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Israel said on Thursday it was preparing for the reopening of Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt to let Palestinians in and out, but set no date as it traded blame with Hamas over violations of a US-mediated ceasefire.
A dispute over the return of Israeli hostages’ bodies held by Hamas threatens to derail the truce and other unresolved elements of the plan, including disarmament of terrorists and Gaza’s future governance.
Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters Israel remained committed to the agreement and continued to uphold its obligations, demanding Hamas return the bodies of the 19 deceased hostages it had not handed over.
The Islamist faction has handed over 10 bodies, but Israel said one was not that of a hostage. The terrorist group says it has handed over all bodies it could recover.
The armed wing of Hamas said the handover of more bodies in Gaza, largely reduced to vast tracts of rubble by the war, would require the admission of heavy machinery and excavating equipment into the enclave.
On Thursday, a senior Hamas official accused Israel of flouting the ceasefire by killing at least 24 people in shootings since Friday, and said a list of such violations was handed over to mediators.
“The occupying state is working day and night to undermine the agreement through its violations on the ground,” he said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond. It has previously said some Palestinians have ignored warnings not to approach Israeli ceasefire positions and troops “opened fire to remove the threat.”
Later on Thursday, local Hamas-run health authorities said an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed two people. The Israeli military said its forces fired at several individuals who emerged from a tunnel shaft and approached troops, describing them as posing an immediate threat.
Israel has said the next phase of the 20-point plan to end the war, a blueprint engineered by US President Donald Trump’s administration, calls for Hamas to relinquish its weapons and cede power, which it has so far refused to do.
Hamas has instead launched a security crackdown in urban areas vacated by Israeli forces, demonstrating its power through public executions and clashes with local armed clans.
Twenty remaining living hostages were freed on Monday in exchange for thousands of Palestinians jailed in Israel. Many of the Palestinian prisoners were serving lengthy sentences for terrorist activity.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Thursday Israel had released 30 bodies of Palestinians killed during the conflict, taking the number of bodies it has received since Monday to 120.
Longer-term elements of Trump’s plan, including the make-up of an international “stabilization force” for the densely populated territory and moves towards creating a Palestinian state – rejected by Israel – have yet to be hashed out.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said on Thursday the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) would work with international institutions and partners to address Gaza’s security, logistical, financial, and governance challenges.
An upcoming conference in Egypt on Gaza’s reconstruction would need to clarify how donor funds are organized, who would receive them, and how they would be disbursed, he told reporters.
Hamas ejected the PA from Gaza in a brief and violent civil war in 2007.
In a statement on Thursday, Israel‘s military aid agency COGAT said coordination was under way with Egypt to set a date for reopening the Rafah crossing for movement of people after completing the necessary preparations.
COGAT said the Rafah crossing would not open for aid as this was not stipulated by the truce deal at any stage, rather all humanitarian goods bound for Gaza would pass through Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom after undergoing security inspections.
Italian news agency ANSA quoted Israel‘s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar as saying Rafah will probably be reopened on Sunday.
Aid trucks rolled into Gaza on Wednesday and Israel said 600 had been approved to go in under the truce pact. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher called that a “good base” but nowhere near enough, with medical care also scarce and most of the 2.2 million population homeless.
On Thursday UNICEF said that in recent days it brought in 250 pallets of supplies including family tents, winter clothes, tarpaulins, sanitary pads, and hygiene kits. It has also distributed more than 56,000 packs of baby food to help 12,500 children for two weeks, UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram said.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza media office, said the aid that had entered since the fighting subsided was a “drop in the ocean.”
“The region urgently requires a large, continuous and organized inflow of aid, fuel, cooking gas, and relief and medical supplies,” he told Reuters.
The war was triggered by Hamas‘s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage back to Gaza.