É. Apor (ed.): David Kaufmann Memorial Volume: Papers Presented at the David Kaufmann Memorial Conference, November 29, 1999, Budapest.

ORMOS, István: David Kaufmann and his Collection

ISTVÁN ORMOS would not have the possibility of seeing the fragments from the Genizah. Some letters are in the hand of the "secretary," Mathilde S. Schechter, Schechter's wife, who also wrote at least one very kind letter to Kaufmann, whom he wished to get acquainted with so much because she had heard so many good things about him from her husband. It is most thrilling to read Schechter's lines on his progress in sifting the Genizah material at Cambridge. The reader is reminded once again that no human being in this world is granted pure, unadulterated happiness: going through the Genizah material Schechter had to realize that a considerable part was in Arabic, a language he was completely ignorant of. He repeatedly complained to Kaufmann that he did not understand a word of this portion of the Genizah and asked him to go to Cambridge to help him. Ludwig Blau recalled: This treasure all but came to Budapest. The late David Kaufmann, professor at the Rabbinical Seminary, was negotiating for purchasing the complete geniza. He became deadly pale when he had learned that Schechter, who had travelled to Cairo for this purpose, had got it before him. 1

4 This item of information must also have come from Kaufmann. He also mentions this himself in a remarkable letter recently discovered and published in the present volume by Hermann I. Schmelzer of Sankt Gallen. Scheiber still saw a cardboard box with the inscription in Kaufmann's hand: Aus der Genisa einer egyptischen Synagoge. Di [ens tag], 11. Dec. 1894

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2I

5 This date precedes Schechter's visit by two years. Is it perhaps due to pure chance that the most important Genizah collection in the whole world is not kept in the Oriental Collection today? 21

4 BI.AU Lajos [Ludwig BI.AU], Fosztat városa. Maimonides működésének színhelye [The City of Fustat, the Stage of Maimonides' Activities] = Magyar-Zsidó Szemle 1938. 57. [Reprinted in:] BLAU Lajos, Zsidók és a világkultúra. [Jews and World Culture]. Ed. by János KŐBÁNYAI. Budapest 1999. 331. 21

5 Alexander SCHEIBER, Qetctim hadasim mi-Sefer Talmuda rabba sei Yosef ben Ycf aqob hababli. In: Semitic Studies in Memory of Immanuel Low. Ed. by Alexander SCHEIBER. Budapest 1947. 164 [Hebrew section], SCHEIBER 1977-1984. III. 502. SCHEIBER 1978. 179. 172