The UF George A. Smathers Libraries received a $500,000 grant that will ensure continual advancement in Judaic studies.
The library was awarded with the National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant, which will match $1 for every $3 raised, according to a university press release.
The grant will increase resources for scholarship on the Jewish experience and Jewish history in Latin America, the Caribbean and Florida, said Rebecca Jefferson, head of the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
“To date, there has not been a proper history of the Jews of Florida written,” Jefferson said. “Because this material has been hidden before, it will really transform scholarship.”
Jefferson and her library colleagues will make the documents available to UF scholars, as well as to others around the world. These documents will include details not only about Jewish culture but about other ethnic cultures in the region.
Danny Speagle, a Santa Fe College computer science student, enjoys his work as a volunteer in the Judaica pocket of Smathers Library.
Speagle said when visitors see the expansive collection for the first time, their expressions are unmatched.
“There are books in here from the 1500s, and that is astonishing even to me,” Speagle, 49, said.
Jefferson said Jewish communities in Latin America and the Caribbean have papers, documents and books with details on the Jewish experience in Florida that are typically unreachable.
“Our goal is to make them accessible,” Jefferson said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 1/14/2015 under the headline “Grant awarded to UF libraries for Jewish library"]
