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Ancient Hebrew Manuscripts to Go Online in Israel-Russia Deal
(Reuters) One of the most treasured collections of ancient Hebrew manuscripts and books will be digitized and available for public view online under an agreement by the state libraries of Russia and Israel announced on Tuesday. The digitization shelves a century-old ownership dispute. The 14,000-item Guenzburg collection of medieval books, rare works of Jewish ritual law and mysticism, prayer books and biblical commentaries was purchased by Zionist activists in 1917 for shipment to Jerusalem. But that was delayed by fighting during World War I and the collection was ultimately seized by Soviet authorities after the Russian Revolution. Thousands of new high-quality images of the ancient Hebrew texts will be integrated into the National Library of Israel's online Ktiv manuscript site.