The Brent Faye Internship
Former ElderCollege student, Brent Faye, has given the Department a generous gift to underwrite several short term paid internships for JS majors and minors every semester in order to fulfill the University’s internship requirement. Our pilot program this semester allowed us to place three students at the State of California’s Sutro Library on campus.
Two students, JS minors, Niv Gur and Talia Rubenstein, under the supervision of Sutro Librarian, Tracy Lee, are working with the Hebraica collection’s large number of Yemeni Jewish codices, handwritten in Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, and Aramaic. Our interns are translating the titles, the original descriptions, with a view to developing a finding aid for these documents for researchers. They have literally been ancient manuscript sleuths, searching out alternative spellings, identifying idiosyncratic word choices. It has been fascinating to see what they can do. Their efforts will be incorporated into the Sutro’s catalog upon their internships’ conclusion.
Our third intern, JS major, Desi Parasol, is also at working at the Sutro and under the supervision of Sutro Librarian, Steenalisa Tilcock. Desi has been part of a genealogy project and she’s focusing on Jewish genealogy in California. Like both Talia and Niv, she also is helping to produce a finding aid for the Sutro on Jewish primary and secondary materials that concern genealogies in their collection.
We hope to continue this relationship with the Sutro in the coming semester as well as expand the program to include other Bay Area organizations. If you are interested in participating as a host organization, university entity, or a student intern, please contact Professor Millet. The web page for the program is still under construction, but will be available via the Jewish Studies website by the end of the semester.
