Emory University News Release

Release date: April 26, 2002
Contact: Elaine Justice, Associate Director, Media Relations,
at 404-727-0643 or ejustic@emory.edu

Emory Receives Rare Judaica Stamp Collection

Emory University’s Tam Institute for Jewish Studies has received an extraordinary stamp collection that includes every stamp issued by the state of Israel, as well as supporting materials and stamps issued all over the world featuring Jewish themes. The Sol Singer Collection of Philatelic Judaica was collected over a 40-year period and was donated to the university by retired Atlanta businessman Sol Singer and his wife, Ruth.

David Blumenthal, Cohen Professor of Judaic Studies, says the collection provides a wonderful resource for scholarly research and for teaching such topics as the representation of women, holidays, the Holocaust, the military, minorities, peace, agriculture and art.

"Stamps are one of the ways that countries express national culture, so this collection is an excellent tool to study how Israel and other nations treat issues of Judaism," Blumenthal says.

The donation of the Sol Singer Collection was announced during the annual David R. Blumenthal Awards dinner April 22, where the Singers were honored for their donation and some of the material was on display.

Recipients of the annual Blumenthal Awards, graduate student Marni Davis and undergraduate student Emily L. Saffitz, also were recognized for their winning essays.

The collection includes a complete set of stamps issued by Israel from the period just before independence up to this year, some of which are extremely rare and valuable. Besides individual stamps, the collection includes corners, first-day covers and whole sheets of each stamp issued.

Stamps of Jewish content issued by countries around the world are part of the collection as well. No one knows how many stamps exist, but the Singer collection contains whole volumes of stamps on the themes of the Holocaust, Einstein, Herzl, Judaica and more. Also included are whole sets of various philatelic journals dealing with Israeli and Judaica stamps.

The Sol Singer Collection of Philatelic Judaica will be housed with other original scholarly materials in the special collections and archives division of the Woodruff Library. The collection will be available for research and teaching purposes and may be exhibited in the future.