Translators, poets, publishers, biographers—Jerusalem-based Peter Cole and Adina Hoffman have individually and collaboratively done extraordinary work in bringing literary and cultural marvels to light—and to readers across the borderlines of language and state. They are here this evening with the jointly written book, Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza (Imprint). “One hundred and twenty years ago, time travel was at once realized: With the discovery of the Cairo Geniza, medieval Jewish life in all its sacred and mundane efflorescence came tumbling out in thousands of manuscript fragments, each one a distinct and living voice of an ancestral civilization. No longer can we speak of the seven wonders of the world—in this astounding and acutely relevant tale, Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole have uncovered a remarkable eighth; and it is connection to our own humanity, it surpasses all the rest.” – Cynthia Ozick. “Sacred Trash is a small masterpiece. The romance of Hebrew scholarship has never been so vividly conveyed … It will teach common readers, Jewish and gentile, how much spiritual tradition owes to the greatest scholars. This teaching comes through delight.” – Harold Bloom.