Sacred Treasure, the Cairo Genizah

The story of the Cairo genizah (synagogue storage room) is an absorbing one. The Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo had been in existence for nearly 800 years, suggesting that it might offer possibilities for challenging discoveries, when in 1896 enterprising Cambridge rabbi Solomon Schechter conjectured that Ben Ezra's genizah might hold interesting manuscripts. What he found was a treasure trove of original manuscripts whose mysteries scholars are still unpacking to this day. Schechter unearthed a massive find replete with sacred Torah scrolls, pages of Talmud, original documents from Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides' hand, poetry, love letters, and even centuries-old Hebrew school primers. Glickman, a rabbi in Washington State who contributes a religion column to the Seattle Times, shares the history as well as the politics behind this find. (For example, why is the Cairo genizah given so little public attention and the Dead Sea Scrolls so much more?)