Scribes of the Cairo Geniza is a multilingual crowdsourcing project to classify & transcribe fragments of medieval and premodern manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza. With an in-kind grant from the Zooniverse, the largest crowdsourcing platform in the world, along with institutional and image partners from The University of Pennsylvania Libraries, The Princeton Geniza Lab, The e-Lijah Lab and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research of the Cairo Genizah at the University of Haifa, the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library, The University of Manchester Library, and The Bodleian Libraries at University of Oxford, we are harnessing the power of technology to decipher some of the most difficult to read fragments in the world.
We see this project as a way for people with shared interests and different skill levels from around the world to meet in a common endeavor. We see this as a way to develop new tools for the public to learn to read a variety of scribal hands and to open texts accessible only to a handful of specialists to millions of people.
Check out additional resources here.
Resources
- Scribes of the Seder Haggadah: In 2018, we used the power of the crowd to create a Haggadah out of fragments from the Cairo Geniza. This patchwork haggadah invites people to look critically at the texts that they use on Passover. Read the blog post introducing the Haggadah. Get the list of Geniza Fragment sources and images we used for each section of the Haggadah.
- Cairo Geniza Alephbet Chart: A chart of different Hebrew script types found in the Cairo Geniza, created by Laura Newman Eckstein with help from Dr. Judith Olszowy-Schlanger. This is available as an SVG, a PDF, and AI file.
- Scribes of the Cairo Geniza Event Organizing Toolkit: Are you interested in hosting an event around the Scribes of the Cairo Geniza project? Host a group of #GenizaScribes using our self-contained Organizing Toolkit. In addition to a quick guide, this toolkit includes printable instruction, a sample press announcement, and images for promotional use. The most recent version of this guide is available on Google Drive.
Related Posts
- RECAP: Crowdsourcing and the Humanities: Roundtable Discussions Celebrating Scribes of the Cairo Geniza by admin
- EVENT: Crowdsourcing and the Humanities: Roundtable Discussions Celebrating Scribes of the Cairo Geniza by admin
- An Update from the Scribes Team: Cairo Geniza Research by admin
- Resources for Learning More about the Cairo Geniza by admin
- Upcoming Cairo Geniza Events by admin
- Columbia University Libraries Hosts Scribes of the Cairo Geniza Event by Emily Esten
- DataDeepDive: Passover by admin
- NCPH 2020: #DHJewish: Sharing Judaica with the Internet and Beyond by Emily Esten
- Who are the #GenizaScribes? by Emily Esten
- Princeton Geniza Lab Hosts Scribes of the Cairo Geniza Transcribe-a-thon by Emily Esten
- #MCN2019: Cultivating Community with the Cairo Geniza by Emily Esten
- Birds of the Cairo Geniza by admin
- Talking the Talk: Join by admin
- DataDeepDive: Angelology by admin
- Talking the Talk: Donkey Drawings by admin
- DataDeepDive: Calendars by admin
- DataDeepDive: Writing Exercises by admin
- Talking the Talk: Knots by admin
- DataDeepDive: Get by admin
- DataDeepDive: Descriptive Tags by admin
- DataDeepDive: Medicine by admin
- Talking the Talk: Decree by admin
- DataDeepDive: Divided Subjects by admin
- Talking the Talk: Masoratic Notes by admin
- Talking the Talk: Arets by admin
- DataDeepDive: Materials by admin
- Talking the Talk: Manicules by admin
- Talking the Talk: A Happy Scribe by admin
- DataDeepDive: Piyyut by admin
- Talking the Talk: Calendars by admin
- DataDeepDive: Damage & Repair by admin
- Talking the Talk: Calculation Bookmark by admin
- Update: New Image Partner, Transcription & Sorting Stats, Toolkit by admin
- DataDeepDive: Charakteres by admin
- Talking the Talk: Donations by admin
- DataDeepDive: Scripts & Languages of the Geniza by admin
- Talking the Talk: Binding by admin
- Reviewing Sorting Phase Data: Talk Board Tags by Emily Esten
- Talking the Talk: Pretty Signatures by admin
- Reviewing Sorting Phase Data: Visual Characteristics by Emily Esten
- DataDeepDive: Marginalia by admin
- Talking the Talk: Menorah-shaped Lamnatzeach by admin
- Reviewing Sorting Phase Data: Formal or Informal Style? by Emily Esten
- Talking the Talk: Amidah by admin
- Reviewing the Sorting Phase: Overview by admin
- Reviewing Sorting Phase Data: Hebrew or Arabic Script? by Emily Esten
- Talking the Talk: Divine Names by admin
- Taking a Closer Look: Arabic Script Calligraphy by raha-rafii
- Talking the Talk: Divination by admin
- Talking The Talk: Kabbalah Connections by admin
- The Story of Scripts and Keyboards by Laura Newman Eckstein
- Help us unlock the mysteries of the Cairo Geniza! by admin
- Talking the Talk: Poetry by admin
- Update: Launching Phase 2 of Scribes of the Cairo Geniza by admin
- Talking the Talk: Colophon by admin
- Talking the Talk: Magic Snake by admin
- Talking the Talk: Ledger by admin
- Talking the Talk: 19th Century Fragment by admin
- Talking the Talk: Geometric Flower by admin
- Talking the Talk: Calligraphic Proverbs by admin
- Talking the Talk: Medieval Guidebook by admin
- Where Are We? by Laura Newman Eckstein
- Scribes of the Seder by admin
- Talking the Talk: A Rosh HaShanah Seder by admin
- Talking the Talk: Stay Tuned! by admin
- Talking the Talk: Drawing of the Cosmological Order by admin
- Talking the Talk: Chad Gad Yah by admin
- 10 Marriage Contracts from Penn's Cairo Geniza Collections by Laura Newman Eckstein
- Laurie Allen
- Director of Digital Scholarship
- Samantha Blickhan
- IMLS Postdoctoral Fellow for Zooniverse
- Laura Newman Eckstein
- Judaica Digital Humanities Coordinator
- Doug Emery
- Special Collections Digital Content Programmer
- Emily Esten
- Project Manager; Judaica Digital Humanities Coordinator
- Mitch Fraas
- Curator of Special Collections
- Will Granger
- Front-end Developer for Zooniverse
- Arthur Kiron
- Schottenstein-Jesselson Curator of Judaica Collections
- Moshe Lavee
- Co-director of E-lijah Lab, University of Haifa (Haifa, Israel)
- Vered Raziel-Kretzmer
- The University of Haifa (Haifa, Israel)
- Eve Krakowski
- Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
- Coleman Krawczyk
- Zooniverse
- William Noel
- Director of the Kislak Center for Special Collections
- Shaun A. Noordin
- Web Developer for Zooniverse
- Becky Rother
- Designer for Zooniverse
- Marina Rustow
- Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East, Professor of Near Eastern Studies and History at Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
- Zach Wolfenbarger
- Zooniverse
- University of Pennsylvania Libraries
- Research Partner
- Princeton Geniza Lab
- Research Partner
- Zooniverse
- Research Partner
- e-Lijah Lab and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research of the Cairo Genizah at the University of Haifa
- Research Partner
- Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library
- Image Partner
- The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary
- Image Partner
- The University of Manchester Library
- Image Partner
- The Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford
- Image Partner
- Columbia University Libraries
- Image Partner
- National Library of Israel
- Image Partner