From December 8, 2009 to May 3, 2010, the Bodleian Library at Oxford University will host Crossing Borders: Hebrew Manuscripts as a Meeting-place of Cultures, "which tells the story of how Jews, Christians and Muslims have together contributed to the development of the book as an object of great cultural importance."

University of Minnesota professor Susan Noakes has received a US$70,000 grant for two years for a project entitled “Globalization of the Middle Ages.” The research will be funded by the university's Imagine Fund.

In celebration of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new Year, officials at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem are displaying the Nuremberg Mahzor, a 14th century collection of "handwritten Ashkenazi, or northern European, prayers and liturgical poems." The manuscript is considered the largest surviving text of its kind with only 7 of its 528 pages missing.

Archaeologists excavating the ancient port city of Andriake in Lycia have discovered what they believe is the "first archaeological trace of Jewish culture" found in the area. They believe the temple was one of the earliest built after a 212 C.E. law allowed Jews to become Roman citizen.

Negotiations between the Spanish government and Jewish leaders concluded recently with the reburial of more than 100 medieval Jews whose final resting places were disturbed during construction of a school in Toledo, Spain.

The Levenger Company has produced a facsimile of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a 14th century Spanish prayer book and the oldest haggadah known. The original found its way to Sarajevo, and was saved by an Islamic scholar during World War II.

Maev Kennedy takes a tour around the treasures of the Black Death exhibition at The Wallace Collection, London, including a tiny perfume bottle that was owned by a victim of a superstitious anti-plague pogrom.

The Treasures of the Black Death exhibit at London's Wallace Collection showcase two hoards of medieval jewelry dating to the 14th century. The treasures were owned - and buried with - Jewish families who perished during the Black Plague. (photos)

In the village of Kfar halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, children learn about Israel of 2,000 years ago and the Hanukkah story with the help of historic re-enactors. The village also features activities for kids such as harvesting olives and making oil.

500 years after the Inquisition expelled many Moors from Spain, DNA proves that their "genetic legacy" is still strong, according to Professor Mark Jobling, of the University of Leicester.

On December 8, 2008, Sotheby's Auction House in London will be auctioning a number of western and oriental manuscripts. A catalogue of the items with closeups and descriptions is available to view online.

Detective work comes in all forms, including those willing to intensely study ancient Jewish manuscripts looking for clues to the past. This work is chronicled in the recent novel People of the Book.

Author Edward Kritzler, author of a new book Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom — and Revenge has probably heard all the jokes about Jewish pirates, but he has the last laugh. Benjamin Ivry of the Jewish Daily Forward has a review.

The Royal Ontario Museum has announced that it will bring sixteen of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Toronto for an exhibit which will run June 27, 2009, until Jan. 3, 2010.

Archaeologists from Astrakhan State University believe they have discovered the long-lost capital of the Khazar kingdom in southern Russia. The Khazars were a semi-nomadic people who converted to Judaism between the 8th and 10th centuries.

The 15th century forced conversion of Vienna's Jews led to the community's expulsion from the city, but now archaeologists have discovered the remains of the walls and foundations of the Viennese Synagogue destroyed in 1421.

300 rare Jewish books, confiscated from Iraq's Jewish community during the regime of Saddam Hussein, have been returned to Israel. The works included a 15th century commentary on the biblical Book of Job.

Dozens of skeletons, thought to be Muslim and dating from the 8th or 9th centuries C.E, have been removed from the site of excavations near the Temple Mount according to the Israel Antiquities Authority who have deemed the incident "a serious mishap."

A gold amulet dating to the 3rd century CE inscribed with a Jewish prayer has been discovered in the grave of a Roman child in Halbturn, Austria proving that people of the Jewish faith inhabited the country at the time.

In a review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin discusses People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, a novel about book preservation that revolves around the discovery of a medieval Haggadah, an illuminated manuscript which describes the Jewish Passover Seder.

Jewish scholars are having to rethink opinions about life and culture in early Byzantine times after the discovery of a 5th century synagogue, complete with elaborate mosaic floors.

The remains of a late Roman-Byzantine-era synagogue have been discovered in the Arbel National Park near the Sea of Galilee. The building is thought to date from the 2nd to 4th century C.E.

The History Channel has created a website with interactive links covering the history of all the major holidays on the calendar.

Plans to build a parking lot in Pilsen, Czech Republic, have changed after the discovery of children's graves, part of a 15th century Jewish cemetery.

Christian Science Monitor correspondent Cathryn J. Prince paints document restoration expert Rabbi Menachem Youlus as a latter-day Indiana Jones in her May 16, 2007 report. Rabbi Menachem travels the world to find and restore sacred but damaged Torahs.

For several decades, Israeli archaeologist Ehud Netzer has been looking for the tomb of King Herod. Now he believes he has found it at Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert.

Visit Sacred: Discover what we share, an exhibit of sacred texts, is on display at the Pearson Gallery of the British Library. The exhibit runs through September 23, 2007. (Digital books online)

March 6 - April 22, 2007 the Las Vegas Art Museum and Las Vegas-Clark County Library District will present The Prato Haggadah: An Illuminated Medieval Manuscript in the Making, with a lecture by David Kraemer on March 15, 5:30 P.M.

description:
Come celebrate Purim with the good gentles of the Barony March of the Debatable Lands on Sunday, March 4 at the Branstetter-McCandless Castle, 755 Stonegate Road, Wexford PA, 15090. The site will open at noon and close at 8pm. There will be an all-day side-board of Jewish foods cooked by Mistress She'erah bat Shlomo from several cuisines (meal will be meat, non-dairy, and vegetarian-friendly). The site is wet. Location:
Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands (Pittsburgh Pennsylvania)

Lord Yehoshua ben Hayyim haLevi, founding seneschal of the Shire of Ma'ale Giborim in Israel, reports that the shire just held an event to honor Shushan Channuka, or 8th Night.