Although Johns Hopkins University is a secular institution, its book collections in Judaica and Jewish Studies are both extraordinary and long-standing. Join the university’s Sheridan Libraries for a special event featuring Assistant Professor Samuel Spinner, Tandetnik Chair in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture, and Mack Zalin, PhD, librarian for Jewish Studies, as they share the story behind these collections. Learn how they came to Hopkins and the role they play in teaching and research today.
Attendees will have the opportunity to engage directly with more than a dozen rare and important works from the Judaica and Jewish Studies collections housed at the Sheridan Libraries, offering a unique window into the cultural and academic value of these materials.
Advance registration is requested. Walk-ins welcome with photo id if space is available.
Samuel Spinner received his BA from Johns Hopkins University and his PhD from Columbia University in 2012. From 2012 to 2014, he was the Ross Visiting Assistant Professor of Yiddish and Jewish Studies in the Department of Germanic Languages at the University of California, Los Angeles. From 2014-2017 he was a postdoctoral fellow at Hopkins. His research and teaching encompass Yiddish and German-Jewish literature and culture from the 19th century to the present. His interests include modernism; the history of anthropology; museum studies; visual culture; and Holocaust studies.
Dr. Mackenzie (Mack) Zalin is Librarian for Classics, Comparative Thought and Literature, Jewish Studies, and Modern Languages and Literatures in the Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University. He earned a PhD in Classical Studies from Duke University and a Master of Science in Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Zalin oversees collection development, reference, and instruction in the Sheridan Libraries for French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, and Yiddish languages and literatures.In addition to his regular duties at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Zalin serves as the chair of the Advisory Board of the American Office of L’Année philologique to the Society for Classical Studies. He is also an ex officio member of the Société Internationale de Bibliographie Classique. His recent scholarship evinces an array of interests in early modern Spanish and Latin, as can be seen in co-authored publications in the Bulletin of the Comediantes and Grey Room.
Event DateSunday, November 2, 2025Start Time: 1:00pm EDTEnd Time: 3:00pm EDT
4545 N Charles StBaltimore, MD 21210
ContactSheridan Libraries410-516-0728libraryfriends@jhu.edu
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Thank you for supporting Jewish Studies collections at the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries. Your generosity helps us preserve, digitize, and share rare and significant materials that illuminate Jewish history, culture, and scholarship. With your support, we can expand access to these collections, enrich academic research, and ensure that future generations continue to learn from and engage with these vital resources.
