Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

November 6, 2026

The Fire That Almost Destroyed One of America’s Foremost Judaica Collections

“And the bush was not consumed.”

Founded in 1893, the library of New York City’s Jewish Theological Seminary quickly became one of the world’s most important repositories of Judaica. The renowned scholar Solomon Schechter suggested the library’s logo, based on the biblical verse “And the bush was not consumed.” In 1965, Elan Ezrachi recounts how that motto became prophecy:

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