{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Condition", "value": "Slightly torn, holes, rubbed, faded" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "Kiev" }, { "label": "Provenance", "value": "Donated by Dr Solomon Schechter and his patron Dr Charles Taylor in 1898 as part of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "1 leaf." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "The digitisation of the Taylor-Schechter Cairo Genizah Collection has been sponsored by the Jewish Manuscript Preservation Society<\/a>, the Friedberg Genizah Project Inc., and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK<\/a>." }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

The so-called \u2018Kiev letter\u2019, a 10th-century letter of introduction, probably from the Jewish community of Kyiv, accrediting Jacob b. Ḥanukka to raise funds for his redemption from non-Jewish creditors. Jacob is described as generous and of good family. His brother had borrowed money from gentiles and had then been robbed and slain by brigands, whereupon Jacob was held liable for his brother\u2019s debts. The interpretation of the letter is not without controversy, however, as both the reading \u2018[Qi]yyov\u2019 and the interpretation of the supposedly runic endorsement at the foot of the letter have consistently been questioned. The Kyiv community had paid part of his debt, enabling him to be released from prison, and he is now travelling to other communities to raise funds and repay the remainder. The letter was subject of a study by Norman Golb and Omeljan Pritsak, 'Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century' (1982), which interpreted it as proof of a Khazarian Jewish community in Kyiv in the early 10th c. According to Golb and Pritsak, among the document\u2019s signatories are a number of names of apparently non-Semitic origin, and these they interpreted as Khazars who had converted to Judaism. The letter was authorised by an Isaac the parnas, who signed in Hebrew, and another official who endorsed it in apparently Turkic runes (in the Khazarian language). According to Golb and Pritsak, the use of Khazarian suggests that the document was written before the conquest of Kyiv by the Rus in about 950 CE. However, the document has been subject recently (2026) to a thorough new material and linguistic analysis, and several aspects of this traditional theory can be plausibly challenged. For a recent appreciation, see Torres Prieto and Outhwaite, 'A reassessment of the Kyivan letter from the Cairo Genizah', Journal of Jewish Studies 77, 76-99 (2026); DOI:10.3828/jjs.2026.77.1.76. <\/p>

Multispectral images courtesy of The Early Manuscripts Electronic Library<\/a> and The Lazarus Project<\/a><\/p>" }, { "label": "Persistent Identifier (ARK)", "value": "ark:/12090/cula/934gndhcb<\/a>" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "10th century" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Letter" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "CUL" }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Parchment" }, { "label": "Member of", "value": "