Before the Print Revolution: Manuscripts and the World They Made
Date: Nov 03, 2025
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Sponsor: Online Lecture Series
Location: Online
Category: You Say You Want a Revolution: Jewish Encounters with Radical Change
Before the Print Revolution: Manuscripts and the World They Made
Part of Our Fall 2025 Learning Series, “You Say You Want a Revolution: Jewish Encounters with Radical Change”
Monday, November 3, 2025
1:00–2:00 p.m. ET
Online
Dr. Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections; Assistant Professor, Talmud and Rabbinics, JTS
Before the print revolution transformed how Jews accessed and spread knowledge, handwritten manuscripts shaped Jewish intellectual and spiritual life. In this session, Dr. Mordecai Schwartz explores the quiet revolutions embedded in manuscript culture—from scribal innovation to marginal commentary—and what they reveal about continuity, creativity, and change before Gutenberg.
This session will highlight pieces on display at the Grolier Club of NYC in the exhibit, Jewish Worlds Illuminated: A Treasury of Hebrew Manuscripts from The JTS Library, which features over 100 manuscript and book offerings from The Library.
If you have previously registered for another session in this series, your registration admits you to all sessions in the series, and you may attend as many as you’d like.
About the Series
Mondays, October 20–December 15, 2025
1:00–2:00 p.m. ET
Online
What does revolution look like in Jewish life—spiritual, social, technological, or political? This fall, join JTS scholars for a provocative webinar series exploring transformative moments across Jewish history. From the emergence of monotheism to the Russian Revolution, from handwritten manuscripts to digital frontiers, from summer camps to the Talmud, we’ll consider how Jews have sparked, resisted, and reimagined change. Each session invites reflection on what revolution means—then and now.
