From the Ends of the Earth

The Library of Congress has one of the world's great collections of Judaica, as this catalogue of a recent exhibition makes abundantly clear. Combining a highly readable text with wondrous illustrations, this revelatory volume offers glimpses of Jewish religious life in the Middle Ages, profiles medieval Jewish men of science, traces the massive migration of Jews from Russia beginning around 1870, and discusses such 19th-century Jewish-American woman poets as Emma Lazarus. Words and images delineate the rise of American Jewry as a visible factor in the nation's social, economic, cultural and political life. Reproduced are letters from presidents Washington, Madison, Jefferson and Lincoln to prominent Jewish leaders; music composed by Leonard Bernstein, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins and Arnold Schoenberg; Hebrew literary and religious treasures; and such unique art forms as richly colored synagogue plaques and kabbalistic illustrations. Karp is curator of the Library of Congress's Judaica collection. (Dec.)