December 16 1896 – 11 Tevet 5657
Solomon Schechter left England bound for Egypt and Palestine so he could study Hebrew manuscripts including those in the Geniza at Cairo. There were reports of the Geniza dating back to the 1750’s, and Schechter himself had already purchased fragments from Solomon Wertheimer, a young scholar from Jerusalem. But it was Agnes and Margaret Smith, known as the Westminster Sisters, whose return from Egypt with fragments of the book of Ben Sira from the Geniza that convinced Schechter that he had to go there himself. He set about raising funds to bring back what would become the greatest literary treasure trove in Jewish history. The crates Schechter sent to England contained over two hundred thousand Geniza fragments and manuscripts, which still represent the most important collection for medieval Jewish research in the world.
Schechter’s involvement would vault him to a leading spot among Jewish intellectuals, and his eventual emigration to become the first president of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
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