5 December, 2024
6 December 1946 – 6 July 2024
(Photo courtesy of the Tahan family)
Please Join Us
to honour and celebrate the legacy of Ilana Tahan, OBE—our much-loved colleague, and the international authority on Hebrew Manuscripts. As the Lead Curator for Hebrew and Christian Orient Collections, Ilana oversaw the British Library’s holdings of Armenian, Aramaic, Coptic, Hebrew, Samaritan, 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. Ilana received her Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to scholarship in 2009.
Contributors
Opening Welcome: The Tahan Family
Dr Colin F. Baker
Former Head of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Collections
The British Library
Pauline Malkiel
Former Librarian to the Valmadonna Trust Library
Prof Marc Michael Epstein
Mattie M. Paschall (1899) and Norman Davis Chair in Religion & Visual Culture
Director of Jewish Studies
Vassar College
Dr Luisa Elena Mengoni
Head of Asian and African Collections
The British Library
Closing Statements: The Tahan Family
Date: 5 December, 2024
Time: 18:00-19:00 GMT | 19:00-20:00 CEST | 10:00-11:00 PT | 13:00-14:00 ET | 20:00-21:00 Israel
Venue: Online
The British Library Pays Tribute to Ilana
The National Library of Israel Pays Tribute to Ilana
https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/manuscripts/hebrew-manuscripts
Tributes by Ilana’s Colleagues
Dr Stewart J Brookes
Tolkien Trust Project Cataloguer, and Lyell Fellow in Latin Palaeography at Bodleian Library
Dilts Fellow in Palaeography, Lincoln College
University of Oxford
Read Dr Brookes’ tribute here.
Canon Professor Michelle Brown
Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies
School of Advanced Study
University of London
Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library (1986-2004)
Read Prof Brown’s tribute here.
Anna Nizza-Caplan
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Read Nizza-Caplan’s tribute here.
Nitza Spiro
Director
The Spiro Ark
www.spiroark.org
Read Nitza Spiro’s tribute here.
The Jewish Chronicle interviews Ilana Tahan
about the Digitisation Project of Hebrew Manuscripts
at the British Library, 24 November, 2016
This event would have been Ilana’s last presentation
(she had to withdraw three weeks before it was due to take place)
Ilana Tahan’s Publications
Ilana Presents The British Library Treasures
Ilana’s Life in Photos
(Photo courtesy of the Tahan Family)
Ilana as a baby
Ilana as a baby (2)
Ilana as a teenager
Ilana’s wedding in 1969
Ilana as an MPhil student in Birmingham
Ilana with baby Margalit
Ilana with baby Avy
Ilana with kids in the snow
Ilana with kids in Trafalgar Square
Ilana with kids in York
Ilana celebrating a birthday at home
Ilana at Avy’s and Iris’ wedding
Ilana at the ‘Sacred’ exhibition, British Library
Ilana with Prince Philip at the ‘Sacred’ exhibition, British Library
Ilana with Lord Robert Winston at the British Library (during the Hebrew manuscript digitisation project)
Ilana helping readers at the British Library
King Charles giving Ilana her OBE
Ilana with her OBE medal
Ilana working
Ilana with grandsons Ben and Yoni
Ilana and family
Ilana in her final months
