Dear Michelle
I spoke to the administrator at the synagogue she attended and she kindly said 
that she would pass on any condolence messages for Ilana's family that are sent 
to her
the email is off...@ealingsynagogue.org.uk
best regards
Jonathan Fishburn
 
Jonathan Fishburn Fishburn Books 43 Ridge Hill Golders Green London NW11 8PR 
United Kingdom 
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    On Wednesday 10 July 2024 at 18:28:55 BST, Michelle Margolis 
<michm...@gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 Thank you for sharing this, Jonathan.  Barukh dayan ha-emet.  Ilana was such a 
force in our world in so many ways, including in her amazing efforts to bring 
the British Library's collections to the world.  She will be sorely missed.  Is 
there shiva or condolence information?
My best,Michelle
On Wed, Jul 10, 2024 at 1:03 PM Jonathan Fishburn via Hasafran 
<hasafran@lists.osu.edu> wrote:

 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 AJLThis is 
fromHi 
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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