Since 1972, Irving Langer has served as founder and CEO of E&M Associates, a real estate company with thousands of properties across the United States. Outside of his professional life, Irving Langer stands out as a prominent member of the local community who has made significant gifts to Jewish organizations such as OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services. He also maintains a deep interest in Judaica and Judaica collections.
As the city with the largest Jewish population in the United States, it comes as no surprise that New York City hosts some of the country’s largest and most important Judaica collections in the world. One of the premier Judaica collections anywhere exists at Columbia University in Upper Manhattan. Dating back to the 18th century, the collection began when Samuel Johnson donated his Judaica collection to the college.
Since that time, Columbia’s Judaica collection has expanded through the acquisition of rare books and documents from numerous sources, most notably when Temple Emanuel donated the historically significant Almanzi Library, comprising more than 2,500 rare volumes, to the university library. Other important gifts to the library included donations from Richard Gottheil, Baruch Spinoza, and other major scholars and collectors.
Today, Columbia’s Judaica collection stands as one of the largest in North America and holds more manuscripts than the combined collections of Harvard, Yale, and the Library of Congress. Spanning the 10th to the 19th centuries, the collection includes important works related to topics such as Jewish law, kabbalah, philosophy, and poetry.
