Mark S. Zucker Endowed Judaica Fund
Established in 2011 by Mark S. Zucker, C’83, W’83, PAR’16, the Zucker Judaica Endowment has made it possible for the Penn Libraries to acquire unique, highly significant works documenting the history and culture of Eastern European Jewish life. Though not limited to Eastern European Judaica, income from the Zucker Endowment, established by this son of Holocaust survivors, has been directed to opportunities to develop Penn’s holdings for the study of the Holocaust as well as Hungarian Jewish communities and Ashkenazic religious life before the war. In so doing, the Zucker endowment honors the memory of a long line of great rabbinic leaders in the family. Mark Zucker’s father Jan Czuker (or Joseph Ben Menachem Mendel), was the great-grandson of Avraham Yehuda Schwartz haCohen, known by the name Kol Aryeh (after the title of one of the many books he wrote). One of the foremost rabbis of his generation, the Kol Aryeh corresponded with many rabbinic luminaries, including the Munkatcher Rav and the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Notably, Jan Czuker’s grandfather, Eliezer Zucker, also was the author of many religious works, a renowned judge and was the head of the area’s Jewish religious court (bet din). Their biographies hold a special place in the history of Hungarian Jewry. Most recently, thanks to the Zucker Endowment, the Penn Libraries acquired a special collection of rare 19th and early 20th century Hebrew books printed in the city of Munkacz (Mukachevo), an important center of Jewish life prior to the Holocaust, near Berehova, where the Zucker family lived. Another example is the purchase of the rare first Yiddish edition of Anne Frank’s Diary published in Bucharest by the Meluche-Farlag far Literatur un Kunst, 1958. This printing includes a frontispiece photographic portrait of Anne Frank. It is one of three Yiddish translations printed in 1958 (the other two were issued in Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv)