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| Headquarters | Herzliya, Israel |
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| Website | http://www.shapell.org/ |
The Shapell Manuscript Foundation(SMF) is a non-profit independent educational organization dedicated to research and the collection of historical documents and original manuscripts. The Foundation focuses on the histories of the United States and the Holy Land, with emphasis on the people and events of the 19th and 20th centuries. [1]
The Shapell Manuscript Collection is a private holding of primary source documents [2] relating to various events and historical figures in American, Jewish, and Holy Land history. Included in the Collection are signed documents, photographs and rare books. It is particularly rich with items from the Civil War era, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, and many other historical figures. Among the many noteworthy items are exceptional letters written by George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy. [3]
The Shapell Manuscript Foundation's website offers a large digitized selection of the Collection online for public viewing and research. The online Collection is continuously expanding its offerings of primary source documents and historical artifacts as the digitization process continues. [4]
The Shapell Roster Project is the ongoing research of Jewish Civil War soldiers and their stories. As part of the Foundation's contribution to the Civil War Sesquicentennial Celebration, the Shapell Manuscript Foundation is preparing a new roster of Jewish Civil War soldiers. The Roster is based on a parallel section in Simon Wolf's book, The American Jew as Soldier, Patriot and Citizen, (1895), but uses modern research tools and technology to expand and correct the almost 120-year-old roster.
In addition, the Roster provides documentation (letters, photographs and official documents) for each soldier in the list. At the completion of the project all information and documents will be available online as well as be available in book form. The Union section of The Shapell Roster was made public and published online in 2022. The Confederate data is expected to be released by 2025. [5] [6]
In addition to a general focus on the historic manuscripts of universally recognized world-renowned individuals, the foundation's collection frequently relates to the history of American Jewish life. The collected manuscripts explore such topics as the lives of Jewish soldiers during the American Civil War and other topics which bring light to bear on the role of American Jews on the general society around them. [7] [8] [9]
The documents and artifacts in the Foundation's holdings have been on display at various exhibitions internationally. While the Foundation produces its own exhibitions, it also serves as a resource for other institutions' research efforts and exhibitions. The Foundation has collaborated with various historical institutes by creating and enhancing exhibitions with items on loan, and by contributing original research.
The Foundation regularly exhibits at the National Library of Israel at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. [10] The administrative offices are located in the United States and Israel. [11]
SMF loaned items to the Library of Congress for the traveling exhibition "With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition." [12] The exhibition toured from February 2009 until April 2011 and included letters written by Lincoln, signed portraits and more. [13] [14]
From December 2010 to March 2013 SMF collaborated on the joint exhibition at the National Library of Israel for the exhibit: "Dreamland: American Travelers to the Holy Land in the 19th Century." [15] [16] [17] A sequel to that exhibition, "Dreams and Diplomacy in the Holy Land: American Consuls in Jerusalem in the 19th Century," [18] opened in March 2013 and closed March, 2016.
The Smithsonian National Museum of American History exhibited several documents on loan from SMF at the exhibition: "Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, and the March on Washington, 1963" held from December 2012 until September 2013. [19]
In 2015, SMF presented "With Firmness in the Right: Lincoln and the Jews" in collaboration with the New-York Historical Society and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. [20] The exhibition was produced in conjunction with the publication of the book, Lincoln and the Jews: A History, which contains original research and was co-authored by Professor Jonathan D. Sarna. [21]
Hebron is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of West Bank's largest governorate, known as Hebron Governorate. With a population of 201,063 in the city limits, the adjacent metropolitan area within the governorate is home to over 700,000 people. Hebron spans across an area of 74.102 square kilometres (28.611 sq mi). It is third largest city in the country, followed by Gaza and Jerusalem. The city is often considered one of the four holy cities in Judaism as well as in Islam and Christianity.
The Western Wall, known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall, is a portion of ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem that forms part of the larger retaining wall of the hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount. The term Western Wall and its variations are either used in a narrow sense, for the section of the wall used for Jewish prayer, or in a broader sense, referring to the entire 488-metre-long (1,601 ft) retaining wall on the western side of the Temple Mount.
The Holy Land is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. Today, the term "Holy Land" usually refers to a territory roughly corresponding to the modern states of Israel and Palestine. Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Bahá'ís regard it as holy.
Christian Zionism is a political and religious ideology that, in a Christian context, espouses the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land. Likewise, it holds that the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 was in accordance with biblical prophecies transmitted through the Old Testament: that the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Levant—the eschatological "Gathering of Israel"—is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The term began to be used in the mid-20th century, in place of Christian restorationism, as proponents of the ideology rallied behind Zionists in support of a Jewish national homeland.
Obadiah ben Abraham of Bertinoro, commonly known as "The Bartenura", was a 15th-century Italian rabbi best known for his popular commentary on the Mishnah. In his later years, he rejuvenated the Jewish community of Jerusalem and became recognised as the spiritual leader of the Jews of his generation.
The Israel Museum is an art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading encyclopaedic museums. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, adjacent to the Bible Lands Museum, the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Syrian Jews are Jews who live in the region of the modern state of Syria, and their descendants born outside Syria. Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: from the Jews who inhabited the region of today's Syria from ancient times, and sometimes classified as Mizrahi Jews ; and from the Sephardi Jews who fled to Syria after the Alhambra Decree forced the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
Congregation Mikveh Israel, is a Sephardic Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 44 North Fourth Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The congregation traces its history from 1740. Mikveh Israel is a Spanish and Portuguese congregation that follows the rite of the Amsterdam esnoga. It is the oldest synagogue in Philadelphia, and the longest running in the United States.
Robert Solomon Wistrich was a scholar of antisemitism, considered one of the world's foremost authorities on antisemitism.
Jews have resided in Syria from ancient times. They were joined by Sephardim who fled after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492 CE. There were large Jewish communities in Aleppo, Damascus, and Qamishli for centuries. In the early 20th century, a large percentage of Syrian Jews immigrated to British Mandate-Palestine, the U.S. and Latin America.
The history of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel begins in the 2nd millennium BCE, when Israelites emerged as an outgrowth of southern Canaanites. During biblical times, a postulated United Kingdom of Israel existed but then split into two Israelite kingdoms occupying the highland zone: the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) in the north, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Judah by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Initially exiled to Babylon, upon the defeat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire by the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great, many of the Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem, building the Second Temple.
Theodor Herzl was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, lawyer, writer, playwright and political activist who was the father of modern political Zionism. Herzl formed the Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish immigration to Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish state. Due to his Zionist work, he is known in Hebrew as Chozeh HaMedinah, lit. 'Visionary of the State'. He is specifically mentioned in the Israeli Declaration of Independence and is officially referred to as "the spiritual father of the Jewish State".
The Four Holy Cities of Judaism are the cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias, which were the four main centers of Jewish life after the Ottoman conquest of Palestine.
Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land is an epic poem by American writer Herman Melville, originally published in two volumes in 1876. It is a poetic fiction about a young American man named Clarel, on pilgrimage through the Holy Land with a cluster of companions who question each other as they pass through Biblical sites. Melville uses this situation to explore his own spiritual dilemma, his inability to either accept or reject inherited Christian doctrine in the face of Darwin's challenge, and to represent the general theological crisis in the Victorian era.
Clorinda S. Minor was an American woman from Philadelphia who became influenced by William Miller. When his prophecy failed to materialize she decided to set sail for Palestine. She first traveled to Palestine in May 1849 and came to support the experimental farm set up by the Finn family at Artas. In November 1851 she set off for Palestine again and settled on the outskirts of Jaffa at a place known as Mount Hope.
The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the region of Palestine during the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah waves, and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I. Unlike the New Yishuv, characterized by secular and Zionist ideologies promoting labor and self-sufficiency, the Old Yishuv primarily consisted of religious Jews who relied on external donations (halukka) for support.
The Church's Ministry Among Jewish People (CMJ) is an Anglican missionary society founded in 1809.
Nageeb Arbeely, was a naturalized-American of Syrian descent, appointed by President Grover Cleveland to the post of Consul in Jerusalem in 1885.
On January 11, 1858, the Jaffa Colonists – part of the American Agricultural Mission to assist local residents in agricultural endeavors in Ottoman Palestine – were brutally attacked, creating an international incident at the beginnings of U.S. presence in the Levant. The event, known as the Outrages at Jaffa, tested American colonial resolve in the region, as well as the ability of the U.S. Government to protect its citizens in the region.
The Armenian Quarter is one of the four sectors of the walled Old City of Jerusalem. Located in the southwestern corner of the Old City, it can be accessed through the Zion Gate and Jaffa Gate. It occupies an area of 0.126 km², which is 14% of the Old City's total. In 2007, it had a population of 2,424. In both criteria, it is comparable to the Jewish Quarter. The Armenian Quarter is separated from the Christian Quarter by David Street and from the Jewish Quarter by Habad Street.
The foundation's focus is on the histories of the United States and the Holy Land, with emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Benjamin Shapell Family Manuscript Foundation foundation is a private collection of manuscripts, exploring the jewish and american relationship throughout the years.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Most remarkable, perhaps, is that in this work, running what he called his own kind of "immigration office," Einstein personally saved hundreds of Jewish lives from Hitler's persecution and death camps.