Library Stuff

“The Leo Baeck Institute, a New York research library and archive devoted to documenting the history of German-speaking Jewry, has completed the digitization of its entire archive, which will provide free online access to primary-source materials encompassing five centuries of Jewish life in Central Europe. The expanded archive, which will be available on Oct. 16, purports to be the first of its kind to be made available on the Internet in its entirety. The project, named DigiBaeck, offers digital access to a collection that includes 3.5 million pages of material ranging from the personal papers and photographs of Albert Einstein and Moses Mendelssohn to letters, diaries, recipes and other ephemera chronicling the lives of everyday people.”

via New York Times

AP – “A trove of Jewish books and other materials, rescued from a sewage-filled Baghdad basement during the 2003 invasion, is now caught up in a tug-of-war between the U.S. and Iraq. Ranging from a medieval religious book to children’s Hebrew primers, from photos to Torah cases, the collection is testimony to a once vibrant Jewish community in Baghdad. Their present-day context is the relationship, fraught with distrust, between postwar Iraq and its Jewish diaspora. Discovered in a basement used by Saddam Hussein’s secret police, the collection was sent to the U.S. for safekeeping and restoration, and sat at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Maryland until last year, when Iraqi officials started a campaign to get it back.”

AP – “Recently rediscovered books plundered by the Nazis more than six decades ago were returned to Berlin’s Jewish community on Wednesday in a ceremony at the city’s landmark synagogue.

The Berlin Central and Regional Library formally handed over 10 books and three journal volumes discovered among more than 200,000 volumes being examined by researchers as part of a project to establish their origin, with a focus on restitution.”

AP – “The Iraqi government is negotiating with U.S. authorities the return of millions of documents seized by U.S. troops and sent to Washington after the 2003 invasion. The director of the Iraq National Library and Archives, Saad Eskander, says the most valuable of these documents is the Iraqi Jewish Archive of books, manuscripts and records.”

AP – “A museum tracing the history of Britain’s 300,000-strong Jewish community is reopening after a 10 million pound ($15 million) expansion. The Jewish Museum calls itself the only such gallery in London dedicated to a minority group. It includes a large collection of Jewish ceremonial art as well as interactive displays tracing the history of Jews in Britain from the 11th century until the present day.

Jerusalem Post – “Haredi women are turning to the Internet to build their businesses, which is raising questions about the “kosher” use of social-media tools. “Today you can’t run a business without the usage of a computer and the Internet world,” Rebbetzin Holly Pavlov, founder and director of She’arim College of Jewish Studies for Women in Jerusalem, said Wednesday. “Social media is part of marketing and branding, but it opens an array of dangers.”

Haaretz – “Barring snowstorm-induced printing delays, during the week of February 15, mailboxes across the country will receive the launch issue of The Jewish Review of Books, a new print journal.”

AP – “It was seized from Jewish families and wound up soaking in sewage water in the basement of a secret police building. Rescued from the chaos that engulfed Baghdad as Saddam Hussein was toppled, it now sits in safekeeping in an office near Washington, D.C. Like this country’s once great Jewish community, the Iraqi Jewish Archive of books, manuscripts, records and other materials has gone through turbulent times. Now another twist may be in store: Iraq wants it back.”

Business Wire – “Spanning the second half of the 20th century, the collection documents Potok’s literary career and rabbinical life. It comprises correspondence, writings, lectures, sermons, clippings, promotional material, memorabilia, and fan mail. Among more than 1,200 correspondents is Elie Wiesel, who writes in May, 1992: “I shall read [I Am the Clay] as I read all your books–with fervor and friendship.” Examining the papers, scholars will be able to trace Potok’s writing process from conception to publication: from notebooks for ideas and drafts, to annotated typescripts with comments, to galleys. The collection also provides insights into Potok’s life, including his vocation as a rabbi, his service as a U.S. Army chaplain in Korea from 1955 to 1957, and his work at the Jewish Publication Society, where he served as editor-in-chief from 1969 to 1974.”

BBC – “She and other employees of Anne Frank’s father Otto supplied food to the family as they hid in a secret annex above the business premises in Amsterdam.
Anne’s diary of their life in hiding, which ended in betrayal, is one of the most famous records of the Holocaust.”