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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Foundation(SMF) is a non-profit independent educational organization dedicated to research and the collection of historical documents and original manuscripts.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 will provide documentation (letters, photographs and official documents) for each soldier discussed 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 Roster is scheduled to be published in 2017. [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]
Jerusalem is a city in Western Asia. Situated on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, it is one of the oldest cities in the world and is considered to be a holy city for the three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital, as Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there and the State of Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power. Because of this dispute, neither claim is widely recognized internationally.
Hebron is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies 930 metres (3,050 ft) above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank, and the third-largest in the Palestinian territories, it has a population of over 215,000 Palestinians (2016), and seven hundred Jewish settlers concentrated on the outskirts of its Old City. It includes the Cave of the Patriarchs, which Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions all designate as the burial site of three key patriarchal/matriarchal couples. The city is often considered one of the four holy cities in Judaism as well as in Islam.
The Cave of the Patriarchs or Tomb of the Patriarchs, known to Jews by its Biblical name Cave of Machpelah and to Muslims as the IbrahimiMosque, is a series of caves situated 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Jerusalem in the heart of the Old City of Hebron in the West Bank. According to the Abrahamic religions, the cave and adjoining field were purchased by Abraham as a burial plot, although most historians believe the Abraham-Isaac-Jacob narrative to be primarily mythological.
The Western Wall, known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall, is an ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a relatively small segment of a far longer ancient retaining wall, known also in its entirety as the "Western Wall". The wall was originally erected as part of the expansion of the Second Jewish Temple begun by Herod the Great, which resulted in the encasement of the natural, steep hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount, in a huge rectangular structure topped by a flat platform, thus creating more space for the Temple itself, its auxiliary buildings, and crowds of worshipers and visitors.
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. The term "Holy Land" usually refers to a territory roughly corresponding to the modern State of Israel and the modern State of Palestine. Jews, Christians, and Muslims regard it as holy.
Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenistic period and the earliest mention of Israel is inscribed on the Merneptah Stele around 1213–1203 BCE, religious literature tells the story of Israelites going back at least as far as c. 1500 BCE.
Christian Zionism is a belief among some Christians that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 were in accordance with Bible prophecy. The term began to be used in the mid-20th century in place of Christian restorationism.
The Israel Museum is an art and archaeological 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 Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Syrian Jews are Jews who lived 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 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, "Holy Community Hope of Israel", is a synagogue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that traces its history to 1740. Mikveh Israel is a Spanish and Portuguese synagogue that follows the rite of the Amsterdam esnoga. It is the oldest synagogue in Philadelphia, and the longest running in the United States.
Syrian Jews had predominantly two origins: those who inhabited Syria from early times and the Sephardim who fled to Syria after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain 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 emigrated to Israel, the U.S., and Latin America. The largest Syrian-Jewish community is now located in Israel and is estimated to number 80,000.
The history of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel is about the history and religion of the Jews, who originated in the Land of Israel, and have maintained physical, cultural, and religious ties to it ever since. First emerging in the later part of the 2nd millennium BCE as an outgrowth of southern Canaanites, the Hebrew Bible claims that a United Israelite monarchy existed starting in the 10th century BCE. The first appearance of the name "Israel" in the non-Biblical historic record is the Egyptian Merneptah Stele, circa 1200 BCE. During biblical times, two kingdoms occupied 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 elite returned to Jerusalem, building the Second Temple.
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 (1876) is an epic poem by American writer Herman Melville, originally published in two volumes. It is a poetic fiction about an American young 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.
Warder Cresson, later known as Michael Boaz Israel ben Abraham, was an American diplomat. He was appointed the first U.S. Consul to Jerusalem in 1844.
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 southern Syrian provinces in the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I.
The Church's Ministry Among Jewish People (CMJ) is an Anglican missionary society founded in 1809.
Nageeb Arbeely, was a Syrian-born naturalized-American, 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 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.