thursdays guest

Rebecca Jefferson




 is the head of the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica. Her responsibilities include collection development and the overall management of the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica: the largest and best Judaica research library in the southeastern United States.

Jefferson worked previously in the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library, England. She was responsible for the Research Unit’s Bibliography Project and edited its newsletter. She assisted with collection management and development, and she engaged in public outreach activities.

She received a PhD in Medieval Hebrew from King’s College, University of Cambridge. Her dissertation focused on the reading and dissemination of Hebrew poetry in the Middle Ages. Jefferson’s current research concentrates on collectors and collections of Judaica and Hebraica. She is editing a volume of letters and documents tentatively entitled ‘Collected Papers of the Scholars and Antiquarians who Discovered the Cairo Genizah’ to be published by Brill.

In her role as the Judaica curator, Jefferson is looking to expand and develop the Judaica Library’s key strengths, including its memorial books, scarce journals and items of ephemera. She would also like to expand its manuscript and archival collections and acquire more materials pertaining to the Jewish immigrant experience in America, particularly in Florida.