Monday, December 4, 2023

Gratz College has received a grant award of 200,000.00 euro from The Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, to launch the Gratz College - Eric Mandell Digital Music Collection, the most important pre-war German Jewish cultural archive in existence. The digitized music archive will provide freely available access to scholars, students of German culture and Jewish music, as well as Modern Jewish Studies.

Eric Mandell (1902-1988) was well-known among students of Jewish music as a prominent collector and scholar in the field. Born in Gronau, he held positions as cantor, choir director and teacher, and collected musical scores. Arrested one day after Kristallnacht, Mandell was taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Released, he eventually resettled in America and joined Har Zion Temple in Philadelphia. He regrouped his music collection and gifted it to Gratz College upon his retirement in 1970.

Dr. Manfred Keller, noted German expert on the music and collections of Eric Mandell notes, “The Eric Mandell Collection is of inestimable value for the Jewish community in Germany. It bridges the gap to Germany’s rich culture of Jewish music, that the Nazis attempted to destroy, in particular the German Jewish synagogal music.”

Through a collegial partnership, The University of Pennsylvania will review, catalog and scan the materials to ensure long term sustainability for use by scholars and historians. Dr. Arthur Kiron, curator of Judaica Collections and head of the Library at Penn’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies describes the partnership:

“We are thrilled to partner with historic Gratz College to preserve and make accessible the Gratz-Mandell collection of Jewish music.  By ensuring the long-term physical security of this priceless collection, twice a survivor of Nazi persecution, and by partnering to digitize and catalog the collection, Gratz College and the Penn Libraries are making it possible for students and scholars, locally and across the globe, to discover, study in situ as well as instantly view and freely download this precious resource.”

Edwin Seroussi, the Ellie and Herbert D. Katz Distinguished Fellow and the Roberta and Stanley Bogen Visiting Scholar at University of Pennsylvania Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies will lead the processing and cataloging of the contents of the archive. “The collection consists of more than 15,000 items. It includes books, articles, clippings, catalogues, anthologies, sheet music, vocal and instrumental compilations and a variety of manuscripts.”

The Gratz College - Eric Mandell Digital Music Collection represents one aspect of a major archive digitization effort at Gratz College. The “Barbara and Fred Kort Holocaust Geniza Project” was launched in November 2022 with the Gratz Holocaust survivor testimonial archive; and there are plans for other marquee collections.  The Mandell archive and all other Gratz digital archives in development, will be freely accessible on a searchable, online platform.  Scholars and students will be able to search for unique primary source materials and artifacts throughout the Geniza’s various collections.

Gratz gratefully acknowledges the German government’s support for this ground-breaking initiative to democratize the Gratz College - Eric Mandell Digital Music Collection for scholars and students throughout the United States, Germany, and the world.