Book Notes: A guide to the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection, by Stefan C. Raif

<plain_text><page sequence="1">Book Notes 217 GENIZAH COLLECTIONS A Guide to the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection. By Stefan C. Reif. Cambridge University Library (1973). Pp. iii + 17. 9 plates. Price not stated. It is now 75 years since Schechter brought the contents of the Cairo Genizah to Cam? bridge and thereby inaugurated a new depart? ment of Jewish scholarship. The story has been frequently told, and is once more rehearsed in this pamphlet, the great merit of which is the publication for the first time of a com? prehensive class-list of the Old Series, as basically classified by Schechter himself, and of the New Series (consisting of material laid aside by Schechter after preliminary inspection as being apparently of secondary importance), arrangement of which began some twenty years ago. Dr. Reif has laid scholars under his debt by preparing this handy guide, which should save students of these documents considerable time. While the history of Genizah scholarship naturally forms part of Anglo-Jewish history, the documents themselves have not so far yielded anything of direct bearing on pre-Expulsion English Jewry, and in the nature of things this is hardly likely. But since the Genizah has produced evidence regarding refugees from France fleeing before the Crusaders, even an English find is not utterly beyond the bounds of possibility. Raphael Loewe</page></plain_text>