Every Book Has a Story: The Story of Alpha Betah of Ben Sira

Yoram Bitton, Director of Libraries, HUC

More than 500 years ago, a contentious and unsettling book representative of what today we would call Pulp Fiction was published. Entitled Alpha Betah of Ben Sira, it was printed for the first time in Constantinople in 1519, became very popular, and was reprinted many times in the 16th century. Through this book’s fascinating story and its social-historical context, glimpse one of the treasures among the more than one million collection items preserved on HUC’s library shelves.

Presented by the Klau Library.