Isaac Rivkind here describes an exhibition that had been held at the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary. The exhibition included 11 manuscripts of Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch from the 13th to 19th centuries that were written both on parchment and paper from countries as far apart as Spain, Yemen and what was formerly Persia. There was even one manuscript with the comments of his grandson, Rashbam, and his student R. Yosef Karo. Rivkind also describes one manscript from 13th century Spain where for each sentence of Exodus, there was close to it the translation of Onkelos (in Aramaic), an Arabic translation and Rashi's commentary. The exhibition also had many examples of Rashi's commentary on Tanakh and the Talmud, as well as works on Rashi's halakhic contributions and his school.

Isaac Rivkind (1895–1968) was a librarian and scholar. Rivkind was born in Lodz, Poland, and studied at the yeshivot of Volozhin and Ponevezh. During World War I and after he helped organize the Mizrachi movement of Poland. In 1917 he founded the Ze'irei Mizrachi in Lodz and in 1919–20 was a member of the Jewish National Council of Poland. In 1920 he was a delegate to the London Zionist Conference and from there proceeded to the U.S. to work on behalf of Mizrachi. In 1923 he began to work in the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, eventually becoming chief of the Hebraica section. He was a co-founder of the U.S. branch of the Yiddish Scientific Institute (YIVO); on the executive of the Hebrew P.E.N. Club of the U.S.A.; and a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research. During World War II and in the immediate postwar years he was the national chairman in the U.S. of the League for Religious Labor in Palestine.

Rivkind was the author of significant studies and essays in many fields, notably in Jewish bibliography, ethnography and folklore, Yiddish philology, and Zionism. He contributed to numerous periodicals and publications in Hebrew, Yiddish, and English, including Kirjath Sepher, Reshumot, and Yidishe Shprakh. He wrote the following works: Le-Ot u-le-Zikkaron ("For a Sign and a Reminder," 1942), a study on the history, development, and customs of bar mitzvah; Der Kamf Kegn Azartshpilen bay Yidn (1946), on the fight against gambling among Jews, with special reference to Old Yiddish poetry; and Yidishe Gelt ("Jewish Money," 1959), a Yiddish lexicological study on money in Jewish folkways, cultural history, and folklore. Other notable studies of his included Ha-Naziv ve-Yihuso le-Hibbat Ziyyon ("Rabbi Naphtali Zevi Yehuda Berlin and the Hibbat Zion Movement," 1919), Elokei Bialik ("The Religion of Bialik," in Ein ha-Kor, 1923), "Moses Provencal on Ball Playing" ("Teshuvat...," in Tarbiz, 4 (1932/33, 366–76), and "A Responsum of Leon of Modena on Uncovering the Head" (in Sefer ha-Yovel... L. Ginzberg (1946), 401–23). He assisted scores of scholars in their research.