Illus­trat­ed high­lights from the Judaica Col­lec­tion of the Library of Con­gress.
 
Books Like Sap­phires show­cas­es a wide range of Hebra­ic trea­sures from the sto­ried col­lec­tion at the Library of Con­gress, many of them for the first time. Trac­ing the his­to­ry of Judaica col­lect­ing in the twen­ti­eth-cen­tu­ry Unit­ed States, the book illu­mi­nates var­ied works, telling their sto­ries along­side vibrant col­or images. These include a unique man­u­script about a betrothal scan­dal in Renais­sance Crete, an illus­trat­ed Esther Scroll, a poem from 1477 cel­e­brat­ing the new tech­nol­o­gy of print­ing, amus­ing rhymed cou­plets in six­teenth-cen­tu­ry Pad­ua, and the Wash­ing­ton Hag­gadah. This book also tells the sto­ry of the patrons and col­lec­tors, first among them Jacob Schiff, as well as archivists and cura­tors, who made the sto­ried Judaica archive at the Library of Con­gress the pre­cious resource that it is today.