Jewish groups have issued a legal threat against a public library in New Jersey if librarians proceed with a public reading of a book called “P is for Palestine,” the Bridgewater Courier News reported Monday. The two groups – the Central Jersey Jewish Public Affairs Committee and the Zachor Legal Institute, a legal group that…
(JTA) — Seems like the creator of the Dewey Decimal System, the book-classification method for libraries that bears his name, was out of order in his treatment of minorities and women. Now the Council of the American Library Association has voted to remove Melvil Dewey, the association’s founder, from its creative leadership medal because of…
Jewish students and faculty at Manchester University in Great Britain are demanding that the institution remove books by the Holocaust denier David Irving from its library — a request that the college has denied on free speech grounds. “Leaving Irving’s books on open display is a threat to the safety of Jewish students and staff…
The rhombicuboctahedronal National Library of Belarus sits on the northwest edge of Minsk, elevated above the surrounding landscape like a Brutalist disco ball. Few passersby would suspect that it’s home to some of the finest Jewish libraries of pre-war Paris, housing thousands of rare volumes that once inhabited the elegant studies and drawing rooms of…
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Livraria Ets Haim is the world’s oldest functioning Jewish library. As such, it is no stranger to the prospect of imminent destruction. Founded in 1616 by Jews who fled Catholic persecution in Spain and Portugal, the three-room library is adjacent to Amsterdam’s majestic Portuguese Synagogue in the Dutch capital’s center. The 30,000-volume collection…
Barack and Michelle Obama announced the design for the Obama Presidential Library. The structure will be designed by the husband and wife architectural team of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. Williams and Tsien have previously designed for organizations like The Jewish Theological Seminary, and The University of Chicago, which will host the library. The design…
Given that it’s is one if not the most essential Jewish texts, the Talmud can be surprisingly hard to come by. But not anymore: The Jewish start-up Sefaria just released a free digital version into the public domain. The William Davidson Talmud is an edition of the Babylonian Talmud with parallel translations into English and…
The greatest collection of rare Jewish historical documents in the United States will be boxed up later this year and put into storage until at least 2018, the Forward has learned. The library at Manhattan’s Jewish Theological Seminary — Conservative Judaism’s largest rabbinic seminary — holds the most impressive compilation of Jewish historical materials outside…
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