Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica

The Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica within the University of Florida Libraries' Special & Area Studies Collections supports the teaching and research missions of the Center for Jewish Studies and the University of Florida. The Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica currently holds over 100,000 circulating volumes. The main library is located on the first floor of Library West. The Judaica special collections are held in the Judaica Suite in Smathers Library (East).

The core collection of the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica was formed from the private collection of Rabbi Leonard C. Mishkin of Chicago, Illinois. At the time of its purchase by the University of Florida in 1977, Mishkin's library was the largest private collection of Judaica and Hebraica in America.

The Mishkin collection of around 35,000 volumes was purchased in part thanks to a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Challenge Grant - the first ever awarded to a United States Research Library. This major award was matched by the first State of Florida Quality Improvement Funds.

Two large collections supplemented and complemented the Mishkin acquisition: Professor Shlomo Marenof's personal collection with its strengths in Hebrew literature (purchased in 1978), and Bernard Morgenstern's bookstore on New York's Lower East Side with its copies of major and lesser known Yiddish works (purchased in 1979). A smaller collection of mostly Ancient Near Eastern works and books on the Dead Sea Scrolls was later acquired from Theodor H. Gaster's private library in the 1980s.

In 1979, a fund was established to support the development of the Judaica library by Jack and Samuel Price, alumni of the University of Florida. Their gift of $400,000 was the largest single gift ever given to the UF Libraries up to that point, and it was the first time that a special collection in the University Library had been endowed. The Judaica Library was named for their parents, Isser and Rae Price, at a special dedication ceremony in March 1981.

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