David Sclar, "A Communal Tree of Life: Western Sephardic Jewry and the Library of the Ets Haim Yesiba in Early Modern Amsterdam," Book History 22 (2019): 43–65. (original) (raw)

In the first decades of the seventeenth century, a book collection belonging to the Ets Haim Yesiba, the scholastic arm of Western Sephardic Jewry in Amsterdam, emerged as the period’s first Jewish institutional library. It grew in size and importance as thousands of Conversos emigrated to the Dutch Republic in search of religious tolerance and financial opportunity. As carriers of new knowledge, books – specifically, traditional texts in Hebrew, and Bibles, liturgies, and legal works in vernacular languages – supported the population’s Judaization, particularly within the walls of the Ets Haim. Using shelf lists and, more significantly, annual acquisition records, this paper explores the development of the Ets Haim Library and its impact on Western Sephardic Jewish identity and culture. It addresses three sets of questions: How did the Ets Haim acquire its books, from whom and under what circumstances? What did Portuguese interest in rabbinic books signify about the community’s perceived uniqueness, especially considering the public’s continued adherence to Iberian languages and culture? Did the Ets Haim Library act merely as a facilitator of intellectual, religious, and cultural activity, or did it embody meaning in its own right? In tackling these issues, the article highlights how Portuguese lay leadership sought to ensure the success of its educational institution, as well as the significance of its rabbinate, through the frequent and widespread purchase of canonical texts and newly published rabbinic scholarship.