An anonymous donor is offering up a $1,000 reward for the return of a rare Jewish Bible to the Hastings College's Perkins Library with no questions asked.
The two volume Bible, valued at $6,000, was printed in 1921 for the Roxburghe Club from a manuscript called the Bible of Olivares that belonged to the Duke of Berwick and Alba. It was donated to the college in 2007.
This rare illuminated Bible features unique cover design on brown Moorish leather and many colour plates from the original manuscript. Rabbi Moses Arragel of Guadalfajara created the Castilian translation from the original Hebrew text in the late Middle Ages.
The college was not immediately able to catalogue the tomes and only discovered the loss of the set two months ago when the donor asked to see it.
Matt Fong, the chief of staff of Hastings College, said that the only lead they had of the Bible's whereabouts was that it was last seen in an office. College officials are still unsure of whether the book was stolen, and when exactly it went missing.
"We've checked with everyone on campus, so all indication is that, since nobody on campus has it, that it was taken maliciously from the library. We feel bad in the sense that it was a gift to the college from a donor, and feel we need to do our due diligence to take care of those gifts to the college and put it back in its permanent place in Perkins Library," he said.
Meanwhile, College spokesperson Alice O'Donnel said that library staff have already looked in the entire building for the Bible and reached out to offices and department who may have an academic interest in it to help with the search.
"As a campus community, we shared the news several weeks ago but as of yet have received no leads.We do hope anyone who has had contact with a book fitting this description will contact us regarding its whereabouts. Again, no questions will be asked," she said.
According to college officials, the Bible can be returned to Matt Fong at the Daugherty Conference Center, 716 N. Turner Ave., Hastings between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. He can be contacted through (402) 461-7786.
