Judaica and Hebraica Collections at Stanford

ISRAEL COHEN, 1905 – 1986
 
A Hebrew literary critic, editor, and political activist, Cohen was born in Lashkovets, Eastern Galicia (now Ukraine), raised in Galicia and Czechoslovakia, and studied in Buchach and Lvov. He was a member of the Zionist youth movement he-Haluts (Hehalutz) and emigrated to Palestine in 1925 with other members of that organization. Upon settling in Palestine Cohen became a member of the Labor-Zionist ha-Po’el ha-Tsa’ir and (subsequently) Mapai parties. During the years 1948-1970 he edited the weekly ha-Po’el ha-tsa’ir magazine. Cohen was active in the Association of Hebrew Writers in Israel, serving as its president and editing many of its publications. In addition, he was a member of other literary, cultural, and artistic organizations. Cohen received several prestigious literary awards, among them the Brenner Prize (1962) and the Bialik Prize (1974).
 
Israel Cohen was a prolific author on literary topics, criticism, and translation, and he published essays and articles on social and cultural issues. Among his books are the following:  Ishim min ha-mikra (People in the Bible) (1958, 1962, 1965, 1977), Sefer pitgamim makbilim (Dictionary of parallel proverbs) (1960), and Panim el panim (Face to face) (1979). His collected writings were published in seven volumes (1976-1977).  In 1980 the two-volume festschrift Maslul (Trajectory) was published in honor of his seventy-fifth birthday. It was edited by his daughter, Prof. Nurith Govrin, and contains a selection of critical articles on his works, together with a comprehensive bibliography.

Israel Cohen and His Library
 
The Stanford University Libraries purchased the Israel Cohen Collection in 1994 from his daughters, Prof. Nurith Govrin and Dr. Hagit Halperin. The Cohen collection, consisting of approximately 15,000 volumes, is a major addition to the Libraries’ substantial and growing holdings of materials in Jewish studies. It constitutes an impressive collection of Hebrew books and periodicals, including nearly every significant voice in Hebrew literature during the first half of the twentieth century. The Cohen collection includes books in modern and ancient Hebrew literary works, translations into Hebrew from world literature, dictionaries, lexicons, compilations of proverbs, encyclopedias, and a range of non-fiction works in Hebrew. Among the special topics found in the Cohen collection are utopias, psychology, world history, history of the Jewish people, history of Zionism, and history of the land of Israel. Many of the titles that have been added to Stanford’s holdings from the Cohen collection are found in no other American research library.
 
Acquisition of this outstanding collection was made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Koret Foundation. Additional support toward its processing, preservation, and use was provided by the Barbara and Ken Oshman Fund.