One of the major strengths of Rabbi Leonard C. Mishkin's personal library, which formed the core collection of the Price Library of Judaica, was its large and important selection of festschriften (jubilee volumes) and memorial books (yizkor books or yizker buchen). The Library has actively sought to acquire such volumes during the past 30 years and continues to seek more material of this nature today.
This festschrift entitled 'Komets-alim' (a handful of leaves) was created a year after Leah Stupniker's death at the age of 14. It contains excerpts from Leah's diary written in Palestine and eulogies written by her teachers. Leah and her family had moved from Russia to Palestine in 1921. Two years later, due to economic hardships, they sought a new life in America. Leah's diary (which shows an impressive command of Hebrew for one so new to the language) records this upheaval and her longing to stay in Palestine. Leah died from tuberculosis at Ellis Island. There are only 3 known copies of this work in U.S. libraries: an online edition which was supplied to the University of Florida Digital Collections by the Klau Library at Hebrew Union College; the Price Library edition which is a preservation photocopy, and a copy held at Harvard University.
Augustow is a district town in the Bialystok province of Poland. There were five synagogues in Augustow by the beginning of the 20th century; Isser Price and his family were among the c.2,000 Jewish residents in the early part of the century. Nearly all of the 4,000 Jews living in Augustow perished during the Holocaust.