Hi
I just wanted to let people on Hasafran know if they haven't already heard that
sadly Ilana Tahan has passed away. She did attend and present at, at least one
AJL conference and must have been known to many members of the AJL
This is from the British Library
I’m writing to pass on some very sad news about our lead curator for Hebrew and
Christian Orient collections, Ilana Tahan, who passed away peacefully last
Saturday.
Ilana Tahan joined the British Library as the Curator of Hebrew Collections in
1989. She soon began to collaborate with colleagues across the UK on organizing
and systematizing Hebrew librarianship and curation. In 2004, the British
Library published her book Memorial volumes to Jewish communities destroyed in
the Holocaust : a bibliography of British Library holdings. Ilana was part of
the curatorial team behind the Library's flagship exhibition Sacred in 2007. In
2008, she published her guide to the British Library's Hebrew collection,
Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Word and Image. In 2009, she was awarded the
Order of the British Empire for her scholarship and work in making the
collection more accessible.
Ilana became the Lead Curator for Hebrew and Christian Orient Collections in
2012, overseeing the Library's holdings of Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Hebrew,
Jewish language, and Syriac manuscripts and printed books. In this role, she
was exceptionally active in reaching out to communities and scholars. She
published many articles and chapters on the Hebrew collections and undertook
dozens of public workshops and presentations to bring the manuscripts closer to
audiences. Her work on the Samaritan manuscripts in particular prompted the
Samaritan Community to award her the Samaritan Medal in 2020.
Funded by the Polonsky Foundation and many others (including Rothschild
Foundation Hanadiv Europe), Ilana led the Catalogue of Hebrew manuscripts
digitisation project between 2013 and 2016, with a second phase, in partnership
with the National Library of Israel following on, resulting in the entirety of
the BL’s Hebrew manuscripts collection being made freely available online to
all, with a curated site further opening up the collection for non-specialists.
More recently, Ilana curated the very successful exhibition Hebrew Manuscripts
– Journey of the Written Word. She worked tirelessly on this project,
collaborating with several colleagues at the Library and keeping a close
dialogue with academics and key religious figures in the Jewish community. Due
to the pandemic, the exhibition was open in St Pancras only for a very short
period of time, but Ilana was able to find alternative ways to promote the
items in the exhibition. She contributed to the development of a virtual tour
of the display, which now stands out as a wonderful legacy of her work on the
project, and promoted the exhibition online through high profile events, public
lectures and private views.
Throughout her career Ilana was fully committed to her work at the Library and
passionate about promoting the Hebrew collections to specialists and the wider
audience through social media channels. She regularly posted blogs on the Asian
and African Studies blog, and offered an engaging series of threads on the AAS
and Hebrew Manuscripts Twitter/X accounts.
Ilana leaves behind her husband, son, daughter, and two grandchildren.
Best regards
Jonathan
Jonathan Fishburn Fishburn Books 43 Ridge Hill Golders Green London NW11 8PR
United Kingdom
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Tel +44 (0) 208 455 9139 Fax +44 (0) 208 922 5008
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