PAAJR and the Geniza

• In Event: Assessing the "Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research": Ancient and Medieval

Abstract

Over the years the PAAJR has published articles showing the importance of the Cairo Geniza for Jewish scholarship. They fall into a number of categories. One of them is Jewish history. Alexander Marx wrote an early assessment of the importance of the Geniza for Jewish history (1946).A decade later S. D Goitein expanded on Marx and indicated the relevance of the Geniza not only for Jewish but also for general Middle Eastern history, including the India trade, for which no Islamic records were known at that time. Other disciplines for which the PAAJR has served as a platform for the Cairo Geniza include the Bible, Second Temple literature, the study of Jewish liturgy, personal letters, family law and practice, Jewish commerce, rabbinic texts, and Jewish law and responsa. The articles are emblematic of the vast number of essays on the Geniza that have appeared since the earliest years at the end of the nineteenth century and which have poured forth in virtually every journal of Jewish studies and in many publications of general studies, fulfilling Goitein’s call in the PAAJR.

Author

• Mark R. Cohen, Princeton University