Association of Jewish Libraries Publishing

Miller, Philip E.

, 
PEOPLE OF THE BOOK 
I. Edward Kiev (1905-1975) 
Philip E. Miller 
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion 
New York, NY 
Judaica Librarianship has been fortunate to 
receive assistance from the I. Edward Kiev 
Memorial Library Foundation. Many youn-
ger Judaica librarians, especially those in 
synagogues, schools, and centers, may not 
be acquainted with the late Rabbi Kiev's 
contribution to our profession. We are 
therefore pleased to present this account of 
his life as the first in a series of profiles and 
biographies of notable librarians in our field. 
In the case of Rabbi Kiev, this presentation 
is not meant to be encyclopedic, but rather 
impressionistic, for he was a very private 
person, not readily given to talking about 
himself and his background. While I believe 
this article is historically accurate, it is 
based on anecdotes told by others and on 
my own observations. 
Youth 
Isaac Edward Kiev, the son of Nathan and 
Anna (Radin) Kiev, was born in New York 
City on February 28 (some sources record 
March 5), 1905, and was raised on the 
Lower East Side. From a life-long friend of 
our subject (ari attorney), I learned that 
Rabbi Kiev's father died very young, leav-
ing his penniless widow to raise their child. 
The attorney went on to describe her as a 
tsedeykes, a very pious and charitable 
woman, who, in spite of her own im-
poverished state, was ever ready to extend 
a helping hand to anyone in need. Not 
atypically, Rabbi Kiev attended a traditional 
t:,eder before he attended public school. 
From this home and school environment he 
learned Jewish traditions and values which 
marked his life, well before the inevitable 
pull of Americanization. 
At that time, there were settlement houses 
on the Lower East Side which attempted to 
enrich and improve the lives of its youth by 
providing a safe alternative to the crime-
ridden streets. The settlement houses of-
fered clubs and classes to supplement what 
the youngsters learned in school, and thus 
furthered the process of Americanization. 
One of the "uptown" German-Jewish 
women who was very concerned with the 
welfare of these "downtown" Eastern Euro-
pean Jewish children was Louise Water-
man Wise, wife of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. 
As I heard the story, the young Kiev was one 
of a number of orphans who came to the 
attention of Mrs. Wise, who "adopted" them 
and saw to it that they had, among other 
things, a proper pair of shoes or clothing for 
Rosh Hashanah (that is, the beginning of 
- the school-year). 
Education 
It was through Mrs. Wise that Kiev came to 
the attention of Rabbi Wise, who was seek-
ing students for his newly created (1922) 
rabbinical seminary, the Jewish Institute of 
Religion. I. Edward KieventeredtheJ.I.R. in 
1923 as part of what was to be the second 
graduating class, i.e., the class of 1927. 
While a student, he earned money by work-
ing in the library, paging and shelving 
books. This was his first position on the 
J. I. R. library staff. Because Kiev did not 
complete the course of study at J.I.R., 
which included the writing of a thesis for the 
Bachelor's degree, he was not formally or-
dained in 1927, Instead, he was given. a 
hatarat hora'ah, a certificate recognized by 
the State of New York, which permitted him 
to function as a rabbi. 
Career 
Being a somewhat shy and retiring individ-
ual, and without a formal degree of higher 
learning, it was difficult for the young Mr. 
Kiev to find a pulpit that would pay a satis-
factory wage. But he did find a position-
one that no one else seemed to want-as 
chaplain at the Sea-View Hospital, a city-
run tuberculosis sanitarium on Staten Is-
land. It is difficult for us to realize today what 
a frightening disease tuberculosis was at 
that time. It would be no exaggeration to 
compare it to AIDS in terms of prejudice 
and fears, both real and unfounded. How 
Kiev took to the sanitarium at the outset is 
not known, but he remained chaplain there 
for years, long after it was financially neces-
sary. Indeed, he served continually from 
1927 until his retirement over four decades 
later, and then continued to visit voluntarily 
until his death. 
Because this chaplaincy was a week-end 
position, Kiev continued to work in the li-
brary of the Jewish Institute of Religion, 
serving as Assistant Librarian to both Salo 
W. Baron, Librarian of the Institute between 
1927 and 1930, and Shalom Spiegel, Li-
brarian between 1930 and 1942. The posi"' 
tion of Librarian was, at that time, an 
onerous responsibility thrust upon a junior 
member of the faculty. While it was the Li-
brarian's job to oversee the running of the 
library, especially the budget and payment 
of bills, the Assistant Librarian was respon-
sible for the library's daily operations. 
In 1930, Kiev was considered for the posi-
tion of Librarian, and while members of the 
administration and faculty felt that he had 
the knowledge to perform in this capacity in 
a competent manner, the overriding view 
was that his lack of a university degree 
made it impossible for him to function on the 
same level as Joshua Bloch (New York 
Public Library), Alexander Marx (Jewish 
Theological Seminary) and Adolph Oko 
(Hebrew Union College), who would be his 
professional peers. In 1942, with Shalom 
Spiegel's move to the Jewish Theological 
Seminary, Kiev's abilities were finally rec-
ognized, and he was named Librarian of 
J.I.R., a position he held until his death. It 
was also at that time that he was formally 
made a rabbi, for the lnstitute's catalogue 
listed him as "rabbi extra ordinem." 
Anecdotes 
There is one anecdote from this period 
which especially demonstrates his warm 
arid generous nature. It is a story told to me 
twice, once by Rabbi Kiev and once by 
Philipp Feldheim, the publisher and owner 
of the famous bookstore on East Broadway. 
Feldheim had arrived in New York, a ref-
ugee from Austria, with little more than the 
clothes on his back and a suitcase of books. 
On his first morning in New York, he set out 
to peddle these books, hoping to establish 
himself as a mokher-sforim. He started in 
mid-town at the New York Public Library, 
where a clerk prevented him from seeing 
Dr. Bloch, head of the Jewish Division, by 
telling him that Dr. Bloch did his purchasing 
through the library's Acquisitions Office. 
• Needless to say, the large bureaucracy of 
the Public Library had no time for the 
hapless refugee. 
Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 2 Spring 1988-Winter 1989 181 
Rabbi I. Edward Kiev (right), four days before his death in 1975, at an academic 
convocation in honor of the centennial of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of 
Religion. On Rabbi Kiev's left is Philip Miller, who succeeded him as Librarian of the 
Klau Library in New York. 
Feldheim then walked to the West Side, to 
the Jewish Institute of Religion, where he 
sought an appointment with the Librarian. 
Mr. Kiev received Mr. Feldheim, who ex-
plained that he was trying to establish him-
self as a bookseller, and that perhaps he 
had something in the suitcase that the li-
brary could use. Examining the books, Kiev 
selected a set of Graetz' history in German, 
which he then took into Dr. Spiegel's office, 
closing the door behind him. He emerged 
after several minutes with cash in hand and 
paid Mr. Feldheim, who then went on his 
way. 
When I first met Mr. Feldheim in 1976, he 
told me that this was the very first sale he 
made in America and the beginning of a 
successful career. Rabbi Kiev himself sup-
plied additional details, perhaps not known 
to Mr. Feldheim: Dr. Spiegel was not in his 
office during Mr. Feldheim's visit, as he was 
teaching. The cash for the set of Graetz 
came from Rabbi Kiev's own pocket, for he 
could not bring himself to turn Mr. Feldheim 
away empty-handed. 
Professional Activities 
After World War 11, Rabbi Kiev was very 
much involved in activities that promoted 
Jewish libraries and Jewish books. He 
served as secretary to the Jewish Cultural 
Reconstruction, the body responsible for 
the reporting and inventory of surviving 
Jewish artifacts from the Holocaust. He 
served as president of The Jewish Li-
brarians Association (a forerunner of the 
Association of Jewish Libraries) between 
1951 and 1959. Rabbi Kiev was involved 
with the Council of Archives and Research 
Libraries in Jewish Studies from its incep-
tion. He was also very active in the Jewish 
Book Council, serving as treasurer be-
tween 1954 and 1958, secretary from 1958 
to 1966, and as an associate editor of the 
Jewish Book Annual ( 1952-1975). 
When it came to assisting students, re-
searchers, writers, or anyone who came to 
the library seeking information, Rabbi Kiev 
was in a class by himself. Gifted with a 
prodigious memory, he was able to recall 
countless bibliographic citations with re-
182 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 2 Spring 1988-Winter 1989 
markable ease; he was an absolute master 
of Judaica. Perhaps this was more than a 
fortuitous accident, however; for more than 
twenty-five years-from volume 9 (1950/ 
51) until volume 33 (1976)-Kiev prepared 
the bibliography of American non-fiction 
books for the Jewish Book Annual. 
On his 65th birthday, Rabbi Kiev was pre-
sented a Festschrift: Studies in Jewish Bib-
liography, History and Literature in Honor of 
I. Edward Kiev. (New York: Ktav, 1971 ). In it, 
43 colleagues-constituting a veritable 
"who's who" of Jewish scholarship-re-
paid, as it were, his efforts in assisting him 
in their research. 
Love of Hebrew Literature 
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise considered it a re-
ligious obligation for Jews to buy products 
of the Yishuv in Palestine. In the case of his 
seminary, it meant buying the Hebrew 
books printed there. Consequently, the 
J. I. R. was one of the few American Jewish 
libraries in the 1920s and 1930s actively 
collecting modern Hebrew literature. 
Rabbi Kiev had a deep and abiding love for 
Hebrew and a fascination with its develop-
ment as a modern language, with both 
slang and technical terminology. He 
especially loved children's books in Hebrew, 
for the monolingual Sabra represented an 
ideal for him. He had no patience with Isra-
elis who peppered their speech with what 
he called "lo'azisms." Kiev felt strongly that 
Hebrew should be a language dependent 
upon no other, just as Israel should be a 
state dependent upon no other. 
For many years, Rabbi Kiev served as the 
chairman of the Israel Matz Fund, a founda-
tion which subvents Hebrew writers in Is-
rael and in the Diaspora. He corresponded 
with a number of men and women of -
Hebrew letters, and regularly received let-
ters at the J.I.R. library from such writers as 
Uri Tzvi Greenberg, Shimshon Meltzer, 
Shin Shalom, and Reuveri ben Yosef. Kiev 
looked forward to his annual visit to Israel, 
not only to visit his family there, but to see 
his literary friends as well. 
Especially touching was Rabbi Kiev's ob-
servance of literary yortsayts (anniver-
saries). Using the list provided every year in 
the Jewish Book Annual, he would arrange 
displays to commemorate both famous and 
forgotten Hebrew writers. On the appropriate 
day, Rabbi Kiev would set aside time to 
read from their works, and would absent 
himself from the library during chapel 
tefillah in order to recite kaddish for the writ-
ers. 
The Final Years 
Rabbi Kiev made it plain to one and all that 
he was not looking forward to retirement. 
He told me that he simply could not imagine 
a time when he would not be involved with 
the library and its books, especially in as-
sisting students and researchers in their li-
brary work. Kiev had his wish, for on 
November 3, 1975 he was stricken at work. 
Rabbi Kiev ... served as president 
of the Jewish Librarians 
Association (a forerunner of the 
Association of Jewish Libraries). 
His funeral, held in the auditorium of 
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of 
Religion, was a fire marshall's nightmare. 
The more than five hundred persons in at-
tendance represented nearly every aspect 
of Jewish intellectual and spiritual life in 
New York City. Among those who came to 
pay their respects were colleagues from 
THE FIRST RABBI 
Research into the Earliest Synagogues and Temples-
and the Rabbis and Lay Leaders who Debated Change. 
by RABBI I. HAROLD SHARFMAN, D.H.L. 
~ 
ORTHODOX & REFORM: 
History of the Origins of Polemic Warfare 
Between Orthodox and Reform Judaism 
in Pre-Civil War America 
With Over 260 Rare, Early Photographs, 
768 pages, Limited Quantity, $59 
SEND FOR BROCHURES: 
PaT19foss Press P.O. BOX 4071, MALIBU, CALIFORNIA 90265 
many Jewish libraries; members of the fac-
ulties of the City University of New York, 
Columbia University, the Jewish Theologi-
cal Seminary, New York University, and 
Yeshiva University; rabbis who occupied 
Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform 
pulpits; and Hebrew and Yiddish writers. 
During the nearly half-century that Rabbi I. 
Edward Kiev worked in the J.I.R. library at 
40 West 68th Street, the collection grew 
from under 10,000 volumes to over 
100,000. He, more than any other individ-
ual, was responsible for its growth, its 
breadth, and its depth. And for as long as 
the library was on West 68th Street, many, 
especially the regular visitors to the library 
from outside the College-Institute, routinely 
referred to it as "the Kiev library." 
Dr. Philip E. Miller is Librarian of Hebrew 
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 
New York, and a former President of the 
Association of Jewish Libraries 
(1982-1984). 
A CAREFUL HISTORICAL 
STUDY OF JEWS IN PRE-CIVIL 
WAR AMERICA. As told through 
the Life and Times of the first or-
dained Rabbi in the United States: 
Abraham Rice; describing the mass 
migration of German Jews to Amer-
ica (1840-1880); and the conflict of a 
challenging Reform Judaism when 
nearly every Onhodox Synagogue in 
the United States became trans-
formed into a Reform Temple. 
This biographical study presents 
the emotional and intellectual warfare 
between Onhodoxy and the newly 
emerging Reform movement in 
America, transforming synagogues 
into temples, with incessant conflict 
between Ponuguese, German, Prus-
sian-Polish, Chasidic, and secular 
Jews. 
In this book's preparation Rabbi 
I. Harold Sharfman spent many 
months in studying the early records 
of the earliest synagogues in Ameri-
ca; and collected 260 rare photo-
graphs of early American-Jewish life. 
Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 2 Spring 1988-Winter 1989 183 
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English

I. Edward Kiev (1905-1975)

Weinberg, Bella Hass

IN THE BEGINNING ♦ ♦ ♦ 
Career Prospects of Judaica Librarians 
Bella Hass Weinberg 
As an educator and consultant, I attend many 
professional meetings, which gives me an op-
portunity to observe attitudes to librarians in 
general and Judaica librarians in particular. At 
one meeting I attended recently, the subject 
of recruitment to the profession of Judaica 
librarianship was discussed. One veteran 
librarian commented that no one should be 
encouraged to enter this field because it has 
no career ladder. If a young person does ex-
press interest in this field, she should be en-
couraged to train for a "fallbackjob" first, ac-
quiring a degree in a discipline such as Semitic 
Studies before entering library school. In this 
editorial, I disagree with all these points and 
take issue; with this bleak view of the career 
prospects of the Judaica librarian. 
Career Ladder-It is true that many Judaica 
libraries have only one professional on the 
staff, a_nd that many universities with Jewish 
Studies departments employ only one bib-
liographer and perhaps one Hebraica 
cataloger. Most Judaica librarians advance 
their careers through lateral moves, however, 
rather than moving up the hierarchy of a sin-
gle institution. I am acquainted with someone 
whose first job was in a synagogue library, 
and now holds an endowed chair at a Judaica 
research library. The increase in the number 
of such chairs over the past few years is evi-
dence of the increasing respect accorded to 
our field. 
Judaica librarians who choose not to make 
lateral moves are often accorded higher ranks 
and salaries by their parent institutions, even 
if the size of their staff does not increase. 
Faculty status is held by many Judaica librar-
ians in academic settings, and "Director of Li-
brary Services" is a job title held by several 
synagogue librarians who have contributed 
to this journal. 
Job Outlook-As I see it, the current demand 
for Judaica librarians is not a temporary • 
phenomenon. As an increasing number of 
Judaica libraries of all types begin to auto-
mate, the need for people with training in li-
brary and information science and a relevant 
subject background will increase. As teachers, 
principals, and parents associated with Jew-
Co-Editor 
ish schools become aware of how a quality 
library can enhance an educational program, 
the demand for professionals to organize such 
- learning centers can only rise. Adult patrons 
of synagogue library services are likely to re-
quest a greater variety of media offerings and 
access to computerized information systems, 
necessitating increased sophistication in the 
management of such libraries. 
Most Judaica librarians 
advance their careers 
through lateral moves ... 
rather than moving up 
the hierarchy of a single 
institution. 
Although not a futurist, I believe Jewish 
Studies is in a healthy state, and that the de-
mand for Judaica research librarians will grow, 
especially as more universities recognize the 
value of scientific collection management and 
create the position of Judaica Bibliographer-
apart from Judaica Reference Librarian and 
Hebraica Cataloger. Specialized Judaica re-
search libraries and seminaries are also add-
ing to their library staffs and are paying in-
creased attention to their archives, creating 
even more jobs for those skilled in the orga-
nization of information. 
Opportunities for the Judaica librarian are not 
limited to the institutional setting of a library. 
For example, the self-starter with indexing skills 
may enhance our access to Judaic literature, 
and with computer skills, may develop data-
bases to meet a variety of information needs. 
Education and Training-I have always dis-
agreed with those who feel that a subject 
masters is necessary for college librarians in 
addition to a masters in library science, and 
I believe that the need for the second masters 
is increasingly being challenged. In Judaica 
as well, I feel that a general background in 
Jewish Studies and basic familiarity with many 
languages is more useful than a masters in Ak-
kadian, e.g., and no knowledge of Yiddish or 
French. Expertise in one narrow area of Jew-
ish Studies does not prepare a librarian for 
balanced Judaica collection development, 
reference service, or cataloging. The sup-
posed appreciation of the research process 
which is gained through the pursuit of the sec-
ond masters is of questionable value. In any 
case, a Judaica subject masters should not be 
pursued before the library science degree, as 
it prepares one for neither college-level teach-
ing (which demands a doctorate) or a career 
in librarianship. 
Fallback Jobs-The "fallbackjob" of a Judaica 
librarian is general librarianship. No graduate 
program of library and information science 
gives certification in Judaica librarianship as 
a specialty, although some give credit for 
courses in Judaica librarianship taken at other 
institutions. Thus, every Judaica librarian is 
trained first as a general librarian, and it is 
worth noting that the current demand for 
professionals in all types of libraries is un-
precedented. Money magazine predicted that 
the job skills most in demand in the year 2000 
would be computer science with an overlay 
of library-information science. Money is what 
often stimulates Judaica librarians to leave our 
specialty and move into other areas of the 
field, and this fact leads me to my final point. 
Salary Structure-It is well known that, com-
pared to other professionals, librarians are not 
well paid, and that within this profession, 
those associated with the humanities earn less 
than those in the sciences. Judaica librarians 
in special libraries tend to be paid less than 
their humanities counterparts in large univer-
sities. In my view, however, rather than advis-
ing young people not to enter this specialty, 
directors of Judaica libraries should be fight-
ing for higher salaries for their staff members 
to minimize the turnover problem and en-
hance recruitment possibilities. It is shameful 
to offer a salary of $18,000 a year to a young 
person with a bachelor's degree, a master's 
degree, and knowledge of three languages. 
Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 3 
COMMENTARIES 
IN THE BEGINNING 
(Continued) 
In times of financial crisis, libraries often ex-
perience budgetary cutbacks. In the general 
library literature, one sometimes reads of poli-
ticians categorizing libraries as unnecessary 
cultural frills. In the Judaica community, we 
enjoy a much greater degree of respect for 
books, libraries, and learning-which protects 
us from such attitudes, but which cannot, of 
course, guarantee full financial support. Ad-
ministrators of libraries must deal with the dif-
ficult question of the percentage of resources 
to allocate to materials vs. staff. 
No one enters Judaica librarianship for the 
money. It is for the thrill of working with sub-
ject matter you love and the satisfaction of 
using the languages and knowledge you have 
acquired. There are many devoted volunteers 
in this field, without whom numerous school 
and synagogue libraries could not function. 
Our journal, Judaica Librarianship, is a volun-
teer effort as well, a publication designed to 
represent the profession and enhance its im-
age. The increasing flow of high-quality 
manuscripts to our offices from all segments 
of the Judaica library community serves as evi-
dence of the vitality of the field and of excel-
lent career prospects for those who choose 
to enter this exciting and rewarding 
profession. 
Dear Bella and Marcia: 
Kudos to the both of you upon the appear-
ance of the latest issue of JL. It is a wonder-
ful issue containing something for everyone. 
The articles range from the technical to the 1 
practical, from the scholarly to the just plain 
interesting and informative. 
With cordial best wishes, both profession-
ally and personally, for the New Year. 
Sincerely, 
Harvey P. Horowitz 
Librarian 
Frances-Henry Library 
Hebrew Union College -
Jewish Institute of Religion 
Los Angeles, CA 
Children's Literature 
To the Editors: 
Many thanks to Rachel Meir for an excellent 
article on "Introducing Holocaust Literature 
to Children." She presents the unique prob-
lems generic to writing about the Holocaust 
as well as provides insights to the percep-
tion and psychological needs of a child ab-
sorbing such information. 
Editing as diverse and comprehensive a jour-
nal such as this is no easy task, and my com-
mendations to the editors for a superb job. 
Sincerely, 
Fayge Safran 
Editor, TEN DA'AT 
Torah Education Network 
An affiliate of Yeshiva University 
New York, NY 
Rare Books 
To Our Readers: 
It has been brought to the attention of the 
editors that a full version of Israel Mehlman's 
paper, "What Makes a Hebrew Book Rare?" 
(of which we published excerpts with notes 
by Menahem Schmelzer in JL vol. 3) ap-
peared in the Jewish Book Annual [JBA] Vol-
ume 39 (1981-1982) in an anonymous trans-
lation under the title "What Makes Antique 
Hebrew Books So Rare?" 
There are several ironic aspects to this dis-
covery. First, several members of JL.:s 
Editorial Board are also on the Editorial Ad-
visory Board of JBA as listed in vol. 39. The 
Jewish Book Annual is surely found in the 
libraries of all members of JL.:s Editorial 
Board, and yet none recalled this prior pub-
lication. 
Second, the editors of JL had written to the 
Jewish National & University Library, pub-
lisher of the Hebrew book in which Mehl-
man's essay on rare books originally ap-
peared, to request permission to publish the 
translated excerpts; JNUL did not mention 
in its response that such permission had 
previously been granted. (JBA cited the 
original source, but does not indicate that 
publication of the translation was authorized 
by the publisher.) 
Could a systematic search have identified 
the prior translation? JBA is not indexed by 
the American Index to Jewish Periodicals, 
but is covered by the selective Israeli tool 
Index of Articles on Jewish Studies, known 
The editors acknowledge the continuing support 
of the I. Edward Kiev Library Foundation for the pub-
lication of Judaica Librarianship. 
4 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 


Career Prospects of Judaica Librarians

Kagan, Berl

Acceptance Speech by the Recipient of the Mason Judaica Reference Book Award 
Berl Kagan 
It is a great honor for me to receive the 
Award of the Association of Jewish 
Libraries, and I am very thankful. This 
award is unique among other Jewish liter-
ary awards. First, it is given not only for a 
good book, but for the best literary reference 
book. Second, it is not confined solely to 
Yiddish, Hebrew, or English works. Thirdly, 
it is not limited to one country. 
Since the award is for a Yiddish lexicon, I 
would like to say a few words about Yiddish 
lexicography. 
Zalman Reizen, the pioneer lexicographer 
of Yiddish literature, wrote in the foreword 
of his Leksikon (Vilno, 1929), "There is a 
cardinal difference between my Lexicon and 
similar reference books in other languages. 
[Their] task ... is to give certain informa-
tive summaries about this or that writer, but 
not to first collect the material about them. 
This material is usually found in various 
monographs and literary histories:' 
As far as is known, the first regional Yid-
dish lexicon was published in Montreal in 
1934. It was entitled Yidishe Dikhter in 
Kanade and written by Ch. M. Keizerman-
Withal. This work lacks the main feature of 
a lexicon-a bibliography; moreover, the bi-
ographical portion is quite limited. 
The book appears to be more like a collec-
tion of the author's essays on literary criti-
cism. However, as a pioneering work, it can 
be referred to as a lexicon. 
In 1980, once again, a regional Yiddish liter-
ary lexicon was published in Montreal: Hun-
dert Yor Yidishe un Hebreishe Literatur in 
Kanade, by Hayyim Leib Fuks. Here, a rich 
collection of material on the history of Yid-
dish literature in Canada can be found. 
However, because Fuks was not only a lex-
icographer, but also a poet, the barrier be-
tween poetry and truthfulness was some-
times crossed. 
In the last 10-11 years, Moscow has been 
the center of preparations for the publica-
tion of a new regional Yiddish literary _lexi-
con in Soviet Russia. Since September 
1975, the monthly publication Sovetish 
Heymland has listed alphabetically the 
names of writers for the purpose of provid-
ing "Materyal111 far a Leksikon fun der 
New York, NY 
Yidisher Sovetisher Literatur:' Of course, 
"Materyaln" is not yet a lexicon, but judging 
from what has appeared to date, it seems 
that there will be many deficiences. Clearly, 
the annihilation of hundreds of Yiddish 
writers, among them famous scholars in 
Yiddish literature and linguistics, took a 
heavy toll. 
There are no differences of opinion about 
the importance of regional literary histories 
for a general Yiddish lexicon. However, 
opinion does vary on what should comprise 
a general Yiddish lexicon. 
The main issue is: Who is entitled to be in-
cluded? What are the criteria? There is no 
problem with writers who are well known or 
even somewhat mediocre. The question is: 
What about the so-called "small" writers? 
The editors of a lexicon do not have the right 
to delete certain writers simply because 
they are "minor:' If they were to do this, they 
would become "judges;' and this is not their 
function. The job of a lexicographer is not 
to judge, but only to determine if an in-
dividual is a ''writer:' For a lexicographer, the 
author of one book qualifies for inclusion 
in a lexicon just as the author of ten books 
does. The difference between a major writer 
and one who has published only one or two 
books will be readily apparent in the com-
pleted lexicon. It will be reflected in the 
space required to record their bibliogra-
phies, bibliographical notes, and quotations. 
Another difficult issue for the lexicographer 
is how to word the biographies. Ber Boro-
chow, who was also an eminent Yiddish lin-
guist, recommended: ''A lexicon ought to 
register and describe, but not evaluate, nei-
ther praise nor criticize ... :• 
I basically accept Borochow's premise, but 
feel that quotations should be included. 
Quotations from prominent critics or writers 
are very important because they can shed 
light on the literary personality of the writer 
and enable the reader to better understand 
the author. 
The most authentic portion of a literary lex-
icon is the autobiography. In the case of Yid,. 
dish lexicography, it is almost impossible to 
get all the needed autobiographical and 
biographical data. The greater part of the 
information is obtained through "second-
hand" sources. An author or editor of a Yid-
dish literary lexicon cannot gather informa-
tion pertaining to Yiddish writers located 
throughout the world without outside help. 
Correspondents are needed on various con-
tinents to obtain autobiographies and biog-
raphies of writers in their localities. 
Relying on outside sources opens up the 
possibility that the data received may not 
always be accurate. For publications which 
are well subsidized, the material is checked 
twice and sometimes even thrice. A Yiddish 
lexicon does not fall within this category, 
and the author or editor must rely on cor-
respondents. Many mistakes, some of them 
quite grave, result. The following are three 
examples. 
A few months after the publication of my 
"Lexicon;' I received a letter from Paris from 
a writer listed in it as "dead:' I immediately 
contacted him to apologize and to ask his 
forgiveness. I tried to add a bit of humor to 
my letter by stating that a Yiddish proverb 
says that such a mistake is a sign that he 
will live many more years. 
It was with great trepidation that I read his 
response. He wrote: "Don't worry, this is not 
the first time that I have died in a book, this 
is the third time!" He said this error occurred 
when he was listed as "dead" in a Yiddish 
journal in Brazil in 1934 and also in a Yid-
dish journal in Israel in 1956. 
The same thing happened to Reizen with 
the writer Shloma Skomorovsky-in one 
edition he was dead, in the next he was 
alive. 
The third and most bizarre error occurred 
in the biography of a writer who was not born 
yet! 
The cause of all these strange errors is the 
same: the author or the editor relied on a 
very trustworthy correspondent or co-
worker, and since the information was not 
double checked, the mistakes were not cor-
rected. Fortunately, similar mistakes are rare 
in our lexicons. 
Once again, I want to thank the Associa-
tion for having bestowed upon me the honor 
of this award. 
Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 91 


Acceptance Speech by the Recipient of the Mason Judaica Reference Book Award

Hass Weinberg, Bella

Retrospective Conversion of Hebraica Catalog Records: Options, Issues, and Visions

Association of Jewish Libraries

Vol. 4:1 Cover

Rice, Sherri L.

Quotations from the Bible Reading Club for a Congregational Religious School 
Sherri L. Rice 
Genesis of the Idea 
The high point of summer vacation during 
my ninth year was having the circulation 
clerk at the Finney branch of the Milwau-
kee (WI) Public Library rubberstamp my 
reading club form with a small figure of Billy 
the Bookworm for each book read since the 
previous visit. Now, more than a quarter-
century later, I find myself in the position of 
designing reading motivation programs with 
similar positive reinforcement techniques in 
a congregational library. 
While browsing through a mail-order cata-
log from the Walter Drake Co., I came upon 
pages of address labels pre-printed with var-
ious symbols and pictures-a rose, an ap-
ple, a turtle, a pig, a musical clef, ballet slip-
pers, etc. Each label had space for three or 
four lines of text. It occurred to me that these 
labels could be imprinted with appropriate 
Biblical quotations and used in combination 
with individualized reading logs as a moti-
vational tool for a religious school reading 
club. After much poring through an English 
translation of the Tanakh (The Holy Scrip-
tures, Jewish Publication Society, 5723-
1963, c1917), I found an appropriate Bibli-
cal quotation for each image on the labels. 
Thus was created the "Quotations from the 
Bible Reading Club:' 
In previous years, at the Rebecca Kauffman 
Memorial Library of Congregation Kesher 
Israel in West Chester, Pennsylvania, I had 
organized a Noah's Ark reading club, with 
stickers from Cardesign; and I have also 
used holiday motif stickers from Contem-
porary Designs. Walter Drake stickers are 
less expensive than either of these lines, 
.however, and they give participating stu-
dents more to think about. 
Reform Congregation Beth David 
Gladwyne, PA 
Materials 
The materials required for the Bible Quota-
tion Reading Club include: 
-A reading log for each child (an 8½x11" 
sheet with the club name). 
-A supply of illustrated Biblical quotation 
stickers (samples in Figure 1). 
-A large chart for recording reading prog-
ress of the entire group (ConTact paper 
with a grid design is recommended). 
-A supply of gold and silver dots or stars. 
(This article supplies details on the Bible 
quotation stickers. Instructions for produc-
ing the reading logs and chart can be got-
ten by writing the author at the address 
given below.) 
Procedure 
A child reads a book from our library, writes 
a brief report on the book in the first avail-
able space on his/her reading log, and is 
then entitled to paste a sticker above the 
report. The child then takes a gold or silver 
dot or star and pastes it on the large chart 
on his/her name line. 
Results 
This year, 73 reports were submitted by the 
religious school students. Most of the 
reports were incorporated into library 
columns in the Temple Bulletin. At the end 
of the school year, some were "published" 
in the first issue of the library student news-
paper, edited by a third-grader, Sarah 
Kanes, who typed the bulk of the text her-
self on her computer. 
102 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 
Ordering Information 
The basic stickers have an illustration; most 
measure 2¼"x5/a'~ You provide the words. 
The limit for most of the stickers if four lines 
of 26 characters/spaces each. Suggestions 
for Biblical quotations are found in the chart 
which accompanies this article. Most of the 
designs cost $1.98 for a set of 250 stickers; 
shipping is additional. Send orders to: 
Walter Drake & Sons, Drake Building, Col-
orado Springs, CO 80940. (Allow approxi-
mately one month for delivery.) 
For synagogue libraries that find these 
stickers too costly, I suggest splitting orders 
with another congregation or using just the 
gummed label assortments: P5080 FOUR 
SEASONS labels with the quotation from 
Koheleth given in the chart (the quotation 
will appear on 1,000 labels of 4 different de-
signs: robin, autumn leaf, sun, and snow-
flake), and P4088 FLOWER LABELS (84 
each, approximately, in'each of 12 different 
designs) at $2.49 for 1,000. Copy to read: 
For, lo, the winter is past, 
The rain is over and gone; 
The flowers appear on the 
earth.-Song of Songs 2:11-12. 
Such an order would give the library 2,000 
stickers of 16 different designs for $4.48. 
Additional quotations will be added annu-
ally. Quotations from the Talmud and other 
Jewish sources may eventually be included. 
For further information, write: Blue Balloon 
Books, P.O. Box 681, Westford, MA 01886. 
Sherri L. Rice, Librarian of the Jewel K. Mar-
kowitz Library at Reform Congregation Beth 
David in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania through 
January 1988, currently resides in Mas-
sachusetts. 
Table and Figures follow on next two 
pages. 




Quotations from the Bible Reading Club for a Congregational Religious School

Kutnick, Donna

r 
In-House Hebraica Card Production: The Experience of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies* 
Donna Kutnick 
Introduction 
In 1987, the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies 
began in-house computer-assisted produc-
tion of Yiddish and Hebrew catalog cards. 
Bi-alphabetic cards were produced using 
only an IBM personal computer with a com-
mercial Hebrew software package, without 
the local programming required for the Ap-
ple system at Hebrew Union College (Gil-
ner et al., 1983). This article describes that 
experience, affording other Judaica librar-
ians the opportunity to make an informed 
decision as to whether in-house Hebraica 
card production by computer is viable for 
their institutions. 
The Balch Institute 
The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, lo-
cated in the historic area of Philadelphia, 
documents and interprets the experiences 
in North America of the many ethnic groups 
that have immigrated to the United States. 
The Institute, with a staff of nearly twenty-
five employees, is comprised of a museum, 
research library, and educational depart-
ment. The library, with approximately 50,000 
volumes in nearly forty languages, collects 
materials which describe the heritage, cul-
ture, and experiences of the many ethnic 
groups that came to the United States. Yid-
dish books comprise the largest single-
language collection in the Institute. 
The fact that much of the library's operat-
ing funds come from grants made it imper-
ative that we achieve results on the He-
braica project at minimal cost and within a 
limited time period. 
Cataloging Systems 
In deciding to produce Hebraica cards in 
the original alphabet, the Balch Institute was 
continuing the tradition of other Judaica 
libraries in the United States and Canada. 
Works in all other non-Roman alphabet lan-
guages are cataloged online on OCLC. The 
* Presented at the Cataloging Workshop of 
the Association of Jewish Libraries-Conven-
tion held in Livingston, New Jersey, June 23, 
198Z 
Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies 
Philadelphia, PA 
majority of required Yiddish card sets can 
be and are ordered directly from the Library 
of Congress, but for those books which do 
not have any LC copy, the library decided 
to do original cataloging in a bi-alphabetiQ 
format on the LC model, using AACR2 and 
LC subject headings. 
Author main entries are in the Roman al-
phabet, with the authorized heading estab-
lished according to LC guidelines. The only 
major deviation from LC format is that we 
do not transliterate titles. In deciding not to 
include transliterated titles, we used the 
same rationale that initially persuaded us 
to catalog in the original script, i.e., the lack 
of unambiguous transliteration standards. 
We have a Yiddish-Hebrew title catalog to 
serve patrons searching for books by title. 
One deviation with respect to LC subject 
headings: the Balch Institute Library 
categorizes every book by ethnic group, 
thus all Yiddish entries are represented un-
der the subject heading •~ews:' 
Hardware and Software 
After investigating various possibilities for 
producing bilingual cards, among them 
English-Hebrew typewriters, we decided to 
purchase commercial bilingual Hebrew-
English software. Several possibilities ex-
ist (Kuperman, 1987), and after examining 
the capabilities of several packages, we 
decided to purchase MINCE, which is 
manufactured by Davka in Chicago. There 
are several versions of MINCE, with and 
without vowels, and we chose the cheapest 
and least sophisticated model, called "Mark 
of the Unicorn;' Version LQ, Serial no. 
10038. 
The Balch Institute has an M300 OCLC 
workstation which can also be used as an 
IBM personal computer. With a memory of 
256K RAM, our computer more than met 
the minimal requirements for implementa-
tion of MINCE. According to the MINCE 
tutorial (p. 2-1), "MINCE requires an IBM-
PC or 1000/o compatible computer with at 
least 128K of RAM and a standard graphics 
card"; however, Page (Fast-1) of the same 
manual states: '/\n IBM Color Graphics Card 
or compatible is required to display Hebrew 
characters unless you have installed a spe-
14 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 
cial Hebrew character generator chip in your 
computer:' 
Originally, Davka sent us a chip to install in 
our board. This would have been the least 
expensive, most expedient way of achiev-
ing Hebrew character output; however, be-
cause our IBM computer is also an OCLC 
workstation, the slot for the Hebrew 
character-generating chip was already filled 
by our ALA character-generator chip. We 
therefore initially purchased an IBM-
compatible standard graphics card. When 
this board did not generate Hebrew charac-
ters, Davka sent us a color graphics board 
which should have achieved the desired 
results. When this second board failed to 
generate Hebrew characters, Davka sent a 
monochrome video board, and after several 
months of trial and error, we were finally able 
to display Hebrew characters on the screen. 
In early September 1986, 'at the same time 
that we purchased the MINCE software, we 
shipped our Epson RX 80 dot matrix printer 
to Davka, which installed a special chip to 
enable our printer to produce Hebrew 
characters; however, once the printer was 
returned to us and we finally had the proper 
monochrome graphics card installed, we 
were unable to print the bilingual Yiddish-
English cards that were displayed on the 
screen. We were able to print documents 
in a single alphabet-either Hebrew or 
English-but the Epson could not print bi-
alphabetic documents, which Yiddish cata-
log cards were, of course. After several ad-
ditional frustrating months, we discovered 
that another more sophisticated printer lo-
cated in the Institute, an Epson LQ-1000, 
could handle bi-alphabetic documents. 
Catalog Card Production 
Printing directly onto library card stock 
would have been the most expedient way 
of producing the final copy. Unfortunately, 
standard library card stock could not be fed 
into our printer. We finally resorted to print-
ing the final catalog record onto regular pa-
per, which we then pasted onto card stock. 
Initially, we sent master copies of completed 
cards to Xerox Corporation, which repro-
duced the desired number of cards~We 
provided the card stock, and the card sets 
were produced at a cost of approximately 
$.03 per card. The lnstitute's photocopier, 
the Xerox #1025, could not accommodate 
heavy card stock. We were later able to find 
thinner card stock that could be hand-fed 
into our Xerox machine, thus eliminating the 
middleman and producing all cards in-
house. 
Work Flow 
In addition to the various problems caused 
by incompatible hardware and photocopy-
ing difficulties, we also had to solve logisti-
cal problems. Since the Judaica Librarian 
was the only staff person who could read 
Hebrew characters, the physical production 
of the cards was done by a professional 
librarian rather than a Hebrew typist. 
The- process of card revision is extensive 
and as thorough as possible. Because we 
do not have the built-in checks for both card 
structure and cataloging rules which exist 
on OCLC, we print out the Yiddish-English 
entries a minimum of three times before 
producing the final master record. The en-
tries are revised first by a professional librar-
ian for mistakes in cataloging, LCSH, and 
Roman alphabet typos. They are then sent 
to Yiddish-speaking volunteers who check 
for mistakes in Yiddish. After all errors are 
corrected on the computer, another check 
is made by the Judaica librarian, and then 
the master record is printed out. The num-
ber of cards per set is determined by the 
number of subject headings and added en-
tries. 
Each card has a maximum of thirteen lines, 
leaving sufficient room to type subject head-
ings on the final copies. Samples of author 
and title main entries as well as of a two-
card set are reproduced in Figures 1-3. The 
library assistant types the appropriate sub-
ject headings, and the cards are integrated 
into the general catalog by author, subject, 
and ethnic group. Yiddish title cards are 
maintained in a separate section of the pub-
lic catalog. We also maintain a file with cop-
ies of all our original cataloging in Yiddish 
which is sent periodically to the Library of 
Congress for deposit in the Union Catalog 
and which will, in the future, be dissemi-
nated to other Judaica libraries in the coun-
try through the Council of Archives and Re-
search Libraries in Jewish Studies. 
Evaluation 
Is in-house Hebraica card production in a 
small library worthwhile? We at the Balch 
Institute felt that once the decision to cata-
log in the original alphabet had been made, 
and outside resources of catalog copy ex-
hausted, we had to find an efficient method 
HS 
1-D 
0039 
.C6 
L5x 
72-8168 
DK 
251 
.G4x 
85-1384 
Liptsin:, Sem:, 1893-
-tJUllO 119 rmrm:1 : 1111 UJ,l l''M ":H:N: 
7H9 CJ.Ni> 17K .. 111""7,1 .. , 119 ,:un .. :i ~ 
CMJ / w .. ,u:N rM m .. 1w 11 .. _,..u-u 
:, "tor.I(' i1M'TIN9 : ?~ .. -1"" l - . 1""3t!J""} 
.1951 
264 p. ; ill.:, ports. ; 21 an. 
1. Trade-unions - United States. 
2. Labor and laboring classes -
United States .. 3. Seating systems. 
4. Jews. I. Title. 
0 
Figure 1. Author m~in entry card. 
l U{ lfil!J) l .... l : ., J lUJl!Jrl .. l~{,1., 7,1 
lm:ljJ"' 11 119 lJ1"'1Jj1ITTVl / LT "'jJ,l"l.7\U 
.. J 1unm : 1r'9'7UlN'7"'9 -·--- . 1 mnruu 
.1934 , ii J "'l lill"' "'::rn{ , 153 . Tl 
360 p. : ports. ; 23 cm. 
1. Gersh.mi, Grigori Andr·eyevich, 
1870-1908. 2. Revolutionists --
Soviet Union - Biography. 3. Jews -· •• 
Biography. 4. Jews. I. Ct1ernov, Vic-
tor, ed. 
0 
Figure 2. Title main entry card. 
'zzz:J Workmen's Circle (U.S.). Vladimir MecJefn 
.PS Branch 124 (Philadelphia Pa.) 
WSx 7"'~"',X)ll 119 lJ!Jil!JilO"'ll~ '7N:J71Wl mTTUJ 
1933 mTT "11::0) ,ilrl lill"'"'Jl~ ,124 ILIJJITTJ mrmJ 
HS 
'22Z9 
.PS 
W569x 
1933 
87-70 
-jJITTVl , l!JJmJj) . ) / □ li'-rn)"' J l"' lVil., 7,ID"' lil!.r{ 
.1933 ,[s.n.] : ~"'9)!.11N;"'9 -- .7~ 
9e:, p. : ill., ports. ; 28. cm. 
On cover: Tenth Anniver~,ary : Vladimir 
~, Branch One lwenty·-Four, Wor-1-<.men's 
Circle. 
See next caro 
Workmen's Circle (U.S.).Vladimir Medem 
Branch 124 (Philadelphia, Pa.) 
(Card 2) . . . /N:Jl lWl illTlill 
1. Workmen,s Circle (U.S.),, Vladimir 
Medero Branch 124 (Philadelphia, Pa.) -
Anniversaries, etc. 2 J·ews --
Philadelphia (Pa. ) - Societies, etc. 
3. Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Ethnic groups 
Societies, etc. 4. Jews. I. Title. 
0 
Figure 3. Corporate main entry-two card set. 
Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 15 
r 
I 
of card production for our original cata-
loging. 
In retrospect, the difficulties which we en-
countered during every step of the process 
would have discouraged any staff; however, 
our determination to produce bilingual card 
sets by computer was so strong, and both 
our emotional and financial investment so 
deep, that we pursued this venture until we 
achieved our objective. Production of over 
350 card sets was accomplished within one 
year by a staff of three, which should be a 
heartening prospect for small Judaica 
libraries. 
We hope that this report on the technical 
difficulties we experienced will be helpful 
to other librarians. The economic and staff 
restraints we had to work under would not 
necessarily apply to larger libraries. Certain 
steps of our revision process may be elimi-
nated by larger libraries. All the difficulties 
notwithstanding, we feel that our bi-alpha-
betic cards enhance both the quality and 
accessibility of our Hebraica collection and, 
ultimately, will benefit the researchers who 
use them. 
Acknowledgments 
The author would like to thank Joseph An-
derson, Deborah Moran, and Sheila Walker 
of the Balch Institute for their help and sup-
port during the project and for their helpful 
suggestions in preparing this article. Jerry 
Kutnick also provided support, encourage-
ment, and useful suggestions. 
References 
Gilner, David J.; Kovacic, Ellen Siegel; Zafren, 
Herbert C., "Hebrew Cataloging at Hebrew 
Union College on an Apple II+" Judaica Librari-
anship Vol. 1 No. 1 (Fall 1983), p. 4-8. 
Kuperman, Aaron Wolfe, "Hebrew Word Process-
ing" Judaica Librarianship Vol. 3 No. 1-2 
(1986-1987), p. 17-21. 
Donna Kutnick is the Judaica Librarian at the 
Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadel-
phia, PA. 
'! u~f a-car~ ff;,N''t_]i 
• © 1987 All Rights Reserved 
Searching for a way to easily print out your hebrew card sets 
and label sets? Then you need Judai-a-Card! 
Just type in the call no, author, title, subject, analytics, notes, 
added entries,-Judai-a-Card will automatically produce for you ... 
- 2 main entry catalog cards 
- shelflist card 
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- subject cards 
- added entry cards 
- analytics cards 
- spine labels· 
- pocket la be Is 
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■ Judai-a-C ard allows you to mix freely Hebrew and English characters 
even on the same line! 
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■ For more information contact: 
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16 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 


In-House Hebraica Card Production: The Experience of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies

Kaganoff, Nathan M.

r 
I 
The American Jewish Historical Society as an Archival Agency* 
Nathan M. Kaganoff 
History of the Society 
The American Jewish Historical Society was 
established in 1892, and is thus approach-
ing its 100th anniversary. For many years, 
it was a private organization-almost like a 
private club-that met in the homes of its 
members who were primarily interested in 
the history of the American Jewish com-
munity. 
In 1903, the Society was invited by the Jew-
ish Theological Seminary to move into its 
quarters and was thus able to begin collect-
ing original documents and other material 
reflecting on the history of the American 
Jewish community. The Society remained 
at the Seminary until 1960 when it obtained 
substantial funding as a result of a gener-
ous bequest by one of its presidents. It re-
mained in New York in rented quarters un-
til 1968, when it moved to its own 
headquarters in a building located on the 
campus of Brandeis University, where it re-
sides to this day. 
Scope of the Collection 
The Society has in its collections approxi-
mately 8 to 10 million pages of manuscripts, 
about 80,000 books and pamphlets, and 
hundreds of thousands of periodical issues, 
institutional reports, etc. The Society has the 
largest collection of original material per-
taining to the history of the American Jew-
ish community. 
In our current usage, we generally define 
archives and manuscripts as original docu-
ments, in most cases, handwritten, but also 
possibly typed. Generally, the term manu-
script is used for papers of individuals and 
archives for the products of institutions. The 
terms are, however, often interchanged and 
really refer to the original writing or typing 
*Panel presentation at the Archives Work-
shop of the Convention of the Association 
of Jewish Libraries held in Livingston, New 
Jersey, June 198Z The list of questions to 
which Dr. Kaganoff was responding was pre-
pared by Linda P. Lerman, President, Re-
search & Special Library Division. 
American Jewish Historical Society 
Waltham, MA 
of a letter, document, etc., which is the offi-
cial record of an organization. 
By its very nature, an archival item or manu-
script can only be found in one place. It is, 
therefore, not possible for any institution to 
have all the material pertaining to its area 
of interest in its facility. As a general rule, 
we do not collect photocopies or reproduc-
tions of original documentation. Our policy 
has been that iJ we are aware that original 
documentation pertaining to our subject ex-
ists, recording the fact that it is available in 
other repositories is sufficient, and we need 
not preserve it in our own location. 
All the collections of the American Jewish 
Historical Society relate in some manner to 
American Jewish history. Whether they are 
the products of institutional activity or the 
work of an individual-or in some cases, the 
collections of individuals-the person, the 
subject, or the institution is part of the Amer-
ican Jewish community. We would not nor-
mally accept in our repository any material 
that did not have a significant Jewish com-
ponent. If it had a relatively minor element, 
we would, in all probability, only retain that 
section of the collection which had that part. 
The remainder of the material would prob-
ably be returned to the donor or disposed of. 
Do I believe that material of Jewish interest 
should only be deposited in a Jewish insti-
tution rather than in a general repository or 
archives? That depends. I believe, as I will 
shortly show, that a Jewish institution is 
generally a more appropriate repository for 
various reasons; however, the quality and 
nature of the organization is of greater con-
sequence than its auspices. Generally, we 
recommend that material of purely local in-
terest be preserved in that community. Al-
though the Society is a national organiza-
tion, we will often accept material of a purely 
local nature when no local agency for its 
preservation is in existence. 
The Jewish Element 
How important is the Jewish element in ar-
chives work? In most instances, it is very 
important. I can illustrate the point by an 
event that just occurred. 
38 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 
A woman from a suburban community in 
Boston phoned to tell me that she had in 
her possession a letter from a famous Ha-
sidic rabbi, Rabbi Dovid Talner, and was in-
terested in determining what its value was. 
I am aware that one of the genealogical 
studies of the Chernoboler dynasty includes 
photocopies or photostats of letters of mem-
bers of that Hasidic family, and I asked the 
woman if she had an original letter or was 
it merely taken from the book. She 
responded that she could not tell, but she 
was quite confident that this was an origi-
nal letter because it had been left to her by 
her father. This woman is now in her eight-
ies; her father had traveled widely and over 
the years had accumulated many unusual 
documents. Then she continued, "In fact, 
I know that somewhere over the years he 
had gotten something which we can no 
longer locate, but we are quite certain that 
it was still in the house and that was Rabenu 
Tam's tefillin:' I was a littfe surprised and 
asked her if she did not mean the second 
pair of tefillin that many Jews, especially 
Hasidim, don because of the medieval con-
troversy between Rashi and his grandson, 
Rabenu Tam, regarding the order of the four 
prayers. "No;' she said, her father was a very 
unusual man and had found very unusual 
items, and somewhere in his travels, he had 
run across the tefillin that Rabenu Tam had 
actually worn! The point of the story is that 
for someone not knowledgeable regarding 
Judaism and Jewish tradition, the product 
of archival work may, in some instances, be 
almost ludicrous. 
A second example of taking things at face 
value is a reference to a standard textbook 
used in the study of American Jewish his-
tory, by the well-known American Jewish 
historian, Henry Feingold. Entitled Zion in 
America, his is strictly a book on the his-
tory of the Jewish community in America. 
The title was selected to indicate that for 
many Jews, America became Zion, the Holy 
Land. A competent bibliographer listed this 
as a classic study of the Zionist movement 
in America. Thus I feel that Judaic knowl-
edge is crucial in libraries or archives, 
whether one is working in a reference ca-
pacity, or even more so in a cataloging ca-
pacity. 
, 
Cataloging Policy 
When cataloging collections, either institu-
tional or personal, the policy we follow is to 
describe collections in general terms. We 
only list or describe elements that are 
unique or that are not normally associated 
with the individual or the institution that we 
are working with. We also index the names 
of prominent non-Jews who are represented 
in a collection. Thus, we would automati-
cally list any correspondence with a presi-
dent of the United States, but not necessar-
ily with the rabbi of a synagogue. 
As a general rule, we work with what we call 
a "sophisticated reader:' We assume that in-
dividuals who are just looking for general 
information can obtain the data that they are -
looking for in a public or university library. 
If they visit us, we are more than happy to 
help them, but the level of our descriptions 
and the arrangement of the work are geared 
for serious scholars who already have a very 
good acquaintance with the subject of in-
terest to them. 
We assume that the catalog we are prepar-
ing and the descriptions we are writing are 
presented from a Jewish point of view. We 
do not use the heading '!Jews" in our cata-
log; every item we have, book, manuscript, 
pamphlet, etc. could all be entered under 
that term. We also do not use the subject 
heading Orthodox Judaism; we simply use 
the heading Judaism. 
We have cataloged our material from an 
American Jewish perspective, and we as-
sume that researchers or readers will be suf-
ficiently acquainted with the subject so that 
they can share our perspective. I am confi-
dent that if the same collection were given 
to another institution-whether it be Jew-
ish with other interests, or an archival 
agency of a secular or government body-
the descriptions in their catalog would be 
quite different from ours. 
When we get material in languages that 
members of the staff cannot handle, such 
as Russian, Polish, Old German script, etc., 
we contact the appropriate department in 
the university on our campus or in the Bos-
ton area. There has not been a single in-
stance where the people consulted did not 
feel honored to examine the material and 
tell us what it is about; we then integrate it 
into our regular cataloging procedure. 
Financial Support 
Unfortunately, almost every Jewish archival 
agency suffers from financial problems. We 
at the Society have a healthy backlog and 
have had to cut back on staff. In addition, 
the building into which we moved not quite 
20 years ago has now reached its limits, so 
that we will either have to cut back on ac-
cessions or find additional space. We have, 
in theory, instituted a policy that when 
archives-especially a large quantity of 
archives-are presented to us, the agency 
must provide us with funds for the catalog-
ing of the material, but very often we are 
in a quandary. A collection has great value. 
There are many institutions that will accept 
the material if we don't. In many instances, 
therefore, we do accept archives without 
funds, hoping that we will eventually find the 
necessary means of cataloging it. 
Cooperation With Other Agencies 
In some areas, Jewish archives work to-
gether in an informal manner. For example, 
Yeshiva University Archives is now in the 
process of preparing a large number of 
guides to their collections. They send cop-
ies to us, and we retain them and utilize 
them fully, that is, we know where such ma-
terial is found and can direct researchers. 
The same is true of other Jewish agencies. 
We at the Society have only prepared a 
limited number of guides. We have 
cataloged over 1000 collections, but in a 
brief rather than a very detailed manner. We 
would prepare other guides, but funds are 
not available. 
I believe the greatest area of cooperation 
would be if each archival institution would 
realize its strengths and only retain collec-
tions in those fields so that when we are 
presented with material related to the hold-
ings of another agency, we would advise the 
donor to transfer this material to that agency 
or offer to do so on his behalf. It takes a lot 
of courage to do this because very often 
some available funds will not then be forth-
coming and you might lose a potential gift. 
Otherwise, however, we wind up with a great 
deal of confusion which is already preva-
lent-that no one really knows where cer-
tain collections are found, and there is of-
ten no relation between an agency, what it 
does, and what it has. This is unfortunately 
symptomatic of American Jewish life in 
general: when you come to a community 
you have never visited before, you do not 
know where to look for information and help, 
but once you have found out, you discover 
that there are three agencies duplicating 
each other in that same effort. 
National Bibliographic Tools 
There is the potential for subject access to 
the holdings of Jewish archives through the 
Research Libraries Information Network 
(RUN). At present, the primary bibliographic 
tool is the National Union Catalog of Manu-
s~ript Collections (NUCMC). 
The descriptions given in NUCMC are very, 
very brief. All you can basically learn by con-
sulting this tool is where the material from 
a certain agency or by a certain individual 
can be found. NUCMC provides only broad 
subject access, e.g., Stephen S. Wise might 
be identified as a Zionist. The Society has 
approximately 100,000 pieces of paper in its 
Wise Collection, which covers almost every 
area of human activity. Thus the biblio-
graphic tools mentioned do not really help, 
especially for the sophisticated reader or the 
serious scholar. 
I would like to conclude with a general ob-
servation. When you are doing serious re-
search, the suggestion has been niade that 
the best way to find out what is in a library 
is not to go to the computer or to the cata-
log, but to find the oldest librarian who is 
still on the staff, and preferably a librarian 
who has recently retired but still functions 
and has all his faculties. By discussing your 
research problem with such individuals, you 
will find more information than can be found 
in catalogs or computers. I believe the same 
applies to archives as well. The best source 
for information is the staff itself, especially 
individuals who have been associated with 
the institution for many years. I also believe 
that bringing together professional librar-
ians and professional archivists to exchange 
information is probably the best method of 
coordinating our work. 
Dr. Nathan M. Kaganoff is Librarian of the 
American Jewish Historical Society in 
Waltham, MA. 
Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 39 


The American Jewish Historical Society as an Archival Agency

Hirsh, Marilyn

Grebu, Devis

Pitt, Nancy

Sydney Taylor Book Award Acceptance Speeches

Bernstein, Joanne E.

Bibliotherapy and Loss: Separation, Divorce, and Death in Jewish Children's Literature, Children and Loss

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