Her father had a collection of Hebrew books that she and Lunzer took to London as the basis for the Valmadonna Trust Library.
In that instant, time and space collapsed as I found myself bound to every other Jew who has studied Kimhi's work since it was penned in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.
That moment made clear to me that I am not simply a modern Jew studying in a contemporary yeshiva near Lincoln Center.
I envision Kimhi hunched over his work, and wonder if his soul knows that even still we are learning from him, that his elucidation remains as relevant to the study of biblical text as it was to his contemporaries.
[7]In December 2015, Sotheby's New York presided over the sale of the Daniel Bomberg Babylonian Talmud (1519-1523) from the Valmadonna Trust for $9.3 million, the copy that Lunzer obtained in trade from Westminster Abbey in 1980.
[8] In 1956, Jack Lunzer, the custodian of the Valmadonna Trust attended an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum celebrating 300 years of Jewish resettlement in England.
[9] In grateful recognition of this singular act of largesse, the Abbey awarded the custodian its magnificent copy of the Bomberg Talmud.
[10] David Blumberg, chairman of the board of directors of the National Library of Israel, said: “The Valmadonna Trust Library represents an historic addition to our leading collection of Jewish manuscripts, prints and books, which reflect and embody the cultures of the Jewish people around the world and across the ages”.