Manuscripts display: Chag Purim Sameach! Happy Purim!
Heritage Collections Reading room, Level 2, Central Library
To celebrate Purim (Festival of Lots), a Judaic scroll (c. 1750-1800) from the Archives & Manuscripts collection is being showcased. Purim is an important spring festival in the Jewish calendar.
It celebrates the deliverance of the Jews of the ancient Persian Empire from a plot to murder them. This narrative is told in the Megillat Esther, Scroll of Esther, like the one on display, and is read during Purim.
This Megillah came to Auckland Libraries in 1894 [there is a date stamp] but there is no record of who donated the scroll. It was viewed by Sharon Lieberman Mintz, curator of Jewish Art at the Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary and Senior Consultant Judaica to Sotheby’s New York, when she visited for Limmud, and she gave assistance for describing and dating this scroll.
The scroll will be on view from early March for the month. The Reading Room is open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday.
