The Friedberg Genizah Project

The Cairo Genizah, discovered at the end of the 19th century, is a collection of over 200,000 fragmentary Jewish medieval texts (which may well equal three times that number of folios) that were stored in the loft of the ancient Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt between the 8th and 17th centuries. These manuscripts outline a 1,000-year continuum of Middle-Eastern history and comprise the largest and most diverse collection of medieval manuscripts in the world.
Upon discovery, the fragmented manuscripts were hastily procured by private collectors and university libraries from Europe and North America. As a result, to date there is no exact accounting of the Genizah's contents or their whereabouts.
The Friedberg Genizah Project (FGP) was established to facilitate and rejuvenate Genizah research. It is achieving this goal by locating the Genizah manuscripts and then identifying, cataloging, transcribing, translating, rendering them into digital format (i.e., photographing) and publishing them online. FGP is operating in a joint venture with the Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society Toronto, Canada.
The high-resolution digital images of the manuscripts (600 DPI, or dots per inch, the standard set by the Research Libraries International Organization) are, in a certain sense, "better" than the original manuscript because they can be visually enhanced by computer-generated viewing tools and can be accessed from any computer with internet access at the FGP's online research platform.
The huge academic interest generated by FGP is evidenced by the fact that the most prestigious university libraries in the world have signed copyright agreements with FGP, are participating in the project and are sharing their invaluable manuscript collections with the world. More...