Monday, October 31, 2011

Mark Glickman interviewed about "Sacred Treasure"

RABBI MARK GLICKMAN, author of Sacred Treasure--The Cairo Genizah, is interviewed in a San Diego Union-Tribune blog about his upcoming presentation on the subject matter of his book:
Mark Glickman: The Cairo Genizah

Written by
Joe Nalven
10:06 a.m., Oct 30, 2011

Mark Glickman will be giving a presentation at the San Diego Jewish Book Fair about the Ben Ezra Cairo Synagogue's Genizah, based on his new book, *Sacred Treasure--The Cairo Genizah: The Amazing Discoveries of Forgotten Jewish History in an Egyptian Synagogue Attic.

[...]
Excerpt:
How is it important to us?

MG: It may not be important at all, but it should be! My book explains why, but here are a few brief synopses:

• The Genizah provides a window to a vastly significant and otherwise mostly unknown Jewish world – Judeo-Arabic culture and society.

• The Genizah provides a powerful connection between modern Jews and Judaism and our ancient predecessors.

• The Genizah documents portray a time and place in which Jews and Arabs lived among one another and got along very well – a hopeful vision of the future as well as a fascinating portrayal of the past.

• The Genizah shows us that Jewish religion and tradition is far from the static, unmoving monolith we often think it to be, but that it’s dynamic, always adjusting and adapting to contemporary needs.

• The Genizah story is fascinating and exciting – why wouldn’t you want to know it?
Background here and links. The presentation is in San Diego on 8 November, neatly falling between my previous trip there and my upcoming post-SBL visit. I am sorry to miss it.

More on the Cairo Geniza here and here and links.