History

Established in the late 1930s, the Hebraica and Judaica collections at the University of Texas at Austin comprise over 85,000 of holdings in a wide variety of disciplines, including history, art, music, cinema, linguistics, literature, sociology, government and politics. These resources are located in almost every branch of the University of Texas Libraries.

The current goal of the Hebraica and Judaica collections at UT Libraries is to enhance the area of Israel studies and Hebrew literature, and to expand the current holdings of Israeli cinema and human rights issues.

The Hebraica and Judaica collections are being shaped both by bibliographer selection and patron requests. Since the 1970’s, with the development of the Hebrew Studies Program and the Hebrew language curriculum, the linguistic aspect was added to the existing collection management practice. As a result, the libraries currently hold one of the most significant collections of Hebrew language instruction materials in North America.

In recent years, collection development is focused on Israeli and Palestinian culture, history and politics, the Israeli-Arab conflict, and human rights in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Among our unique resources are several Israeli cinema periodicals such as Ma’arvon, Seratim, Sinematek, Omanut ha-Kolnoa, Klozap, Olam ha-Kolnoa, and Kolnoa, as well as a unique collection of publications (in Arabic) by the Palestinian Forum of Israel Studies based in Ramallah, West Bank.

The Hebraica and Judaica collections support several units and programs on campus: the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, and the Institute for Israel Studies.