Collections

The Library Services of University College, University of London (UCL) holds printed, manuscript and archival collections of Hebraica and Judaica which are of national and international importance. There are 185,000 items in all. The core of the collection was the Library of the philanthropist, scholar and community leader Frederic David Mocatta, deposited in 1905 by the Jewish Historical Society.

Many other famous libraries were added, and though wartime damage destroyed much of the collections, the main library collection was rebuilt from many sources, including the Salomons collections from the Guildhall Library, the collections of Asher Myers and Alexander Altman. The Jewish Studies special collections include two of the most valuable illuminated manuscripts in the Library, an extremely rare 14th century Castilian Haggadah and a 16th century Mahzor, as well as eight incunabula including a 1480 edition of Summaripa's Martyrium Sebastiani.

The Collection is divided into the following eleven sections:

• Altmann Archive
• Gaster Papers
• Goldsmid Letterbooks
• Institute of Jewish Affairs
• Jewish Rare Book Collections
• Mocatta Pamphlet Collection
• Montefiore Family Papers
• Society for the Promotion of Christianity amongst the Jews Archives (S.P.C.J.)
• Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor - MS ADD 8
• Trades Advisory Council Archives
• Lucien Wolf Papers

For more information see UCL Library – Jewish Collections