Association of Jewish Libraries Publishing

Lubetski, Edith

THE CHOSEN BOOK 
It is ironic that the country that tried to de-
stroy the Jews and Judaism a generation 
ago generates a wealth of publications on 
Jews and Judaism. In addition, some well-
known publishers of Germanic (German 
and related languages) exist outside of 
Germany. 
Many libraries order foreign publications 
through a blanket order plan. Klein and 
Erenyi (1985) described such a plan for Ger-
man Judaica. Otto Harrassowitz (Taunus-
strasse 14, 6200 Wiesbaden) was the dealer 
selected. While approval plans are gener-
ally satisfactory, some titles from smaller 
publishers may be overlooked. Thus, it may 
be useful for the librarian to become aware 
of the full range of publications available by 
writing directly for publishers' catalogs. 
Specific titles may be ordered from a Ger-
man bookstore. One I have dealt with that 
can provide German Judaica is: Wolff's 
Bucherei, Bundesallee 133, 1000 Berlin 41, 
(030) 851 42 64. The owner of the bookstore 
is Barbara Steiss. She is knowledgeable in 
the field and can be of assistance to the 
Judaica librarian. 
Listed below are . German-language pub-
lishers who include Judaica in their catalogs. 
Directory of Publishers 
of German Judaica 
Athenaum/Judischer Verlag 
Adelheidstr. 2, 
6240 Konigstein/Ts 
History, Sociology, Philosophy; Jewish con-
tributions to culture. 
C.H. Beck Verlag 
Wilhelmstr. 9 
8000 Munich 40 
E.J. Brill 
Oude Rijn 33a-35 
2300 PA Leiden/Netherlands 
History, Jewish-Christian Relations, Phi-
losophy. 
Publishers of German Judaica 
Edith Lubetski 
Stern College, Yeshiva University 
New York, NY 
Campus Verlag 
Myliusstr. 15 
6000 Frankfurt/Main 
Christians Verlag 
Theaterstr. 10 
2000 Hamburg-36 
Deutsche Verlagsanstalt 
Postfach 209 
7000 Stuttgart-1 
Jewish History, especially in Germany. 
Gesse/schaft Judaist. Studien 
Postfach 970134 
6000 Frankfurt/M-97 
Victor Goldschmidt Verlag 
Postfach 4000 
CH 4003 Basel/Switzerland 
Contemporary Jewish-Christian Relations; 
Holocaust Studies. 
Walter de Gruyter Verlag 
Genthinerstr. 13 
1000 Berlin 30 
Haag & Herrchen Verlag 
Fichardstr. 30 
6000 Frankfurt/M.-1 
Herder Verlag 
Herderstr. 4 
7800 Freiburg/Br. 
lnstitut fur Kirche und Judentum 
Leuchtenburgstr. 30 
1000 Berlin 30 
Koh/hammer 
Postfach 800430 
7000 Stuttgart-BO 
Lambert Schneider 
Postfach 105802 
6900 Heidelberg 
History, Sociology, Holocaust. 
Peter Lang Verlag 
Jupiterstr. 15 
60 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 
CH 3000 
Bern/Switzerland 
History, Philosophy, Theology. 
Felix Meiner 
Postfach 760742 
2000 Hamburg-76 
Maimonides, Philosophy. 
J.C.B. Mohr 
Postfach 2040 
7400 Tubingen 
History, Theology, Philosophy, Philology. 
Neukirchener Verlag 
4133 Neukirchen-Vluyn 
Jewish-Christian Relations. 
Georg Of ms Verlag 
Hagentorwall 7 
3200 Hildesheim 
19th-century Reform Jewry. 
Reichert Verlag 
Tauernstr. 11 
6200 Wiesbaden 
Franz Steiner Verlag 
Birkenwaldstr. 44 
7000 Stuttgart-1 
Semitics, History, and Theology. 
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 
Theaterstr. 13 
3400 Gottingen 
Bible Studies, Christian Theology. 
Carl Winter 
Postfach 106140 
6900 Heidelberg 
Books of M. Hengel. 
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 
Postfach 111129 
6100 Darmstadt-11 
History, Sociology, Theology. 
(continued on p. 80, col. 3) 
, 
l, 
New York City's Leading Scholarly Bookstore 
Judaism and Christianity 
under the Impact 
of National Socialism 
This first comprehensive collection of essays on the 
attitudes of the Churches in Europe to the Jews be-
tween the years 1919-1945, with special emphasis 
on the Holocaust period. A special section deals with 
the Holocaust and contemporary Jewish-Christian en-
counter. 
Essays by Jacob Katz, Shmuel Ettinger, Uriel Tai, 
Paul R. Mendes-Flohr, Konrad Repgen, Otto D. Kulka, 
Michael R. Marrus, John S. Conway, Arthur A. Cohen 
and many others. 
1987 ISBN 965-227-041-5 
5 20 pages, i~dex 
Hardcover $50.00 
Sefer Mishneh Tora Harambam 
In one volume 
Encyclopedic style 
All 14 parts of the Mishneh Tora. 
Alphabetical index. Encyclopedic index. 21 x 80 cm. 
880 pages. Text with appropriate punctuation. Bibli-
cal references. Index of books and halachot. In 
Hebrew. 
Z.H. Preisler, Editor. Jerusalem. $80.00 
Distributed by IDEAL BOOK STORE 
WE STOCK AND SELL THE BOOKS OF THE FOLLOWING ISRAELI PUBLISHERS: 
Bar llan University Press 
The Bialik Institute 
Israel Academy of Science and Humanities 
Israel Exploration Society 
Yad lzhak Ben Zvi 
Kiriat Sefer 
Magnes Press 
Tel Aviv University Press 
Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish Studies 
Yad Vashem Institute 
WE STOCK A LARGE SELECTION OF BOOKS IN THE FIELD OF JUDAICA, IN PRINT AND OUT OF PRINT 
THE SELECTION OF BOOKS IN THIS FIELD IS IN ENGLISH, HEBREW, GERMAN, FRENCH AND ITALIAN. 
WE ISSUE FOUR CATALOGUES ON JUDAICA A YEAR. THE CURRENT ONE IS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST 
WE BUY BOOKS. 
1125 AMSTERDAM AVE. (opp. Columbia University) NEW YORK CITY, NY 10025 (212)662-1909 
Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 61 
, 
Conclusions 
While every piece in the Baron Collection 
has its own interest, it is especially the early 
Eastern European imprints that fascinate. 
They, perhaps more than any other class 
of books, demonstrate the particular esteem 
that books have had in Jewish life. While 
they are often non-descript in appearance, 
they attest to generations of use. Many of 
these have marginal notes drawing atten-
tion to passages in the text. Some include 
material of a non-religious nature of extreme 
interest. For example, one book published 
in Dyhernfurth (Upper Silesia, Poland, near 
Breslau) contains endpapers which are par-
tially filled-out tax assessment forms, com-
plete with the names of Jewish taxpayers 
and their assessments for what appears to 
be January 1830; it may be that they repre-
sent the only surviving official traces of 
these individuals. Certainly this adds a 
dimension to the book beyond its intellec-
tual content. 
The imprints from the pioneer presses in 
Eastern Europe: Grodno, Minsk, and Nowy 
Dwor, join the books from other areas and 
ages-the sober volumes from the Proops 
press in Amsterdam, the comely exemplars 
from the Hebrew presses in Venice, Riva di 
Trento Sabbionetta, and their homely step-
sister~ from Constantinople, Salonika, and 
Smyrna-to remind us that books r~present 
but the bridge between the generations that 
have gone before and that will follow. In a 
Jewish context, they fill us with a tremen-
dous sense of pride at our bibliographic 
richness. 
The idea of scholarly generations is rein-
forced in perusing a scholar's library; Salo 
Baron's Collection includes many books that 
formerly belonged to other scholars. Many 
works relating to Oriental Studies bear the 
autograph of Richard Gottheil (1862-1936), 
Baron's colleague at Columbia University. 
Some items contain the bookplate of Elkan 
Nathan Adler (1861-1946), who retrieved the 
treasures of the Cairo Genizah for scholarly 
study at the end of the 19th century. Adler's 
own private library consisted of over 30,000 
volumes and was sold before his death to 
the Jewish Theological Seminary of Ameri-
ca and Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. 
The acquisition by these institutions o! such 
a significant scholarly resource considera-
bly enhanced their stature in the world 9f 
Jewish Studies, and we at Stanford hope 
to find ourselves in an analogous position. 
Although the Taube-Baron Collection is still 
partially in darkness, our efforts over the 
past year have begun to shed s~me light 
upon it. Our cataloging efforts will p~oba-
bly require several more years and will be 
revealed to the users of the Stanford li-
braries and the RUN database. A major ex-
hibit focusing on the Taube-Baron Collec-
tion will be mounted in the Winter of 
1988-89, to be accompanied by an exhibi-
tion catalog. We look forward to the flourish-
ing of our Jewish Studies program at Stan-
ford. Most of all, we look forward to 
generations of scholars actively using the 
Collection and continually revealing its "ot-
serot boshekh;' its hidden treasures. 
David L. Langenberg is Jewish Studies Bib-
liographer at the Cecil H. Green Library of 
· Stanford University in California. 
80 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 
Lubetski 
(Continued from p. 60) 
Acknowledgment 
I wish to acknowledge the assistance of 
Aryeh Gold of the Hedi Steinberg Library 
of Yeshiva University, in preparing this list. 
Reference 
Klein Shmuel; Erenyi, Zvi, "A German Judaica 
Bl~nket Order: Description and Analysis:' 
Judaica Librarianship Vol. 2 No. 1-2 (Spring 
1985), p. 41-48. 
Edith Lubetski is Assistant Professor of Li-
brary Administration and Library Director, 
Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University. 
She is the co-author (with her husband, Prof. 
Meir Lubetski) of Building a Judaica Library 
Collection (Libraries Unlimited, 1983). Prof. 
Lubetski is also President of the Association 
of Jewish Libraries. 


English

Publishers of German Judaica

Langenberg, David L.

The Taube-Baron Collection of Stanford University, The Bibliographer's View

Reiter, Harriet

Pathfinder on American Jewish Literature 
Scope: 
This guide is designed to help the user lo-
cate books and journal articles on Ameri-
can Jewish literature, including literary criti-
cism. The sources listed will most likely be 
found in a general college library. Use this 
guide in conjunction with a general guide 
to American literature. 
A Brief Introduction 
to the topic may be found in: 
Herzberg, Max J. The Reader's Encyclopedia of 
American Literature. N.Y.: Thom. Y. Crowell, 
1962, pp. 554-547. 
Books may be found by using the card or 
online catalog. Library of Congress subject 
headings which will be helpful include: 
AMERICAN FICTION-JEWISH AU-
THORS (highly relevant) 
AMERICAN LITERATURE-JEWISH AU-
THORS (highly relevant) 
JEWISH AUTHORS-UNITED STATES 
(highly relevant) 
JEWISH LITERATURE (more general) 
JEWS IN LITERATURE (more general) 
Relevant books include: 
Angoff, Charles and Meyer Levin, eds. The 
Rise of American Jewish Literature: An An-
thology of Selections from the Major 
Novels. N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1970. 
Berger, Alan L. Crisis and Covenant: The Ho-
locaust in American Jewish Fiction. Al-
bany, N.Y.: State University of N.Y., 1985. 
Bilik, Dorothy Seidman. Immigrant-
Survivors: Post-Holocaust Consciousness 
in Recent Jewish American Fiction. Mid-
dletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 
1981. 
Chapman, Abraham, comp. Jewish-
American Literature: An Anthology of Fic-
tion, Poetry, Autobiography, and Criticism. 
N.Y.: New American Library, 1974. 
Includes critical essays, such as Leslie 
A. Fiedler's 'Genesis: The American Jew-
ish Novel Through The Twenties' and 
Alfred Kazi n's 'The Jew as Modern Amer-
ican Writer: 
Harriet Reiter 
University of Maryland 
College Park, MD 
Guttmann, Allen. The Jewish Writer in 
America: Assimilation and the Crisis of 
Identity. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 
1971. 
Ranges from the colonial era to the works 
of Saul Bellow. 
Handbook of American-Jewish Literature: An 
Analytical Guide to Topics, Themes, and 
Sources. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 
1988. 
Ha rap, Lou is. The Image of the Jew in Amer-
ican Literature: From Early Republic to 
Mass Immigration.2nd ed. Phila.: Jewish 
Publication Society of America, 1978. 
____ . Creative Awakening: The Jew-
ish Presence in Twentieth-Century Ameri-
can Literature, 1900-1940s. Westport, CT: 
Greenwood, 1987. 
____ . In the Mainstream: The Jew-
ish Presence in Twentieth-Century Amer-
ican Literature, 1950s-1980s. Westport, 
CT: Greenwood, 1987. 
Jewish Book Annual. N.Y.: JWB Book Coun-
cil, 1942 - . 
Includes listings of new American Jew-
ish literature as well as pertinent articles. 
Liptzin, Sol. The Jew in American Literature. 
N.Y.: Block, 1966. 
Covers the colonial era to the early 1960s. 
Includes good bibliographies. 
Madison, Charles A. Jewish Publishing in 
America: The Impact of Jewish Writing on 
American Culture. N.Y.: Sanhedrin/He-
brew Pub. Co., 1976. 
Includes chapters on major publishers of 
American Jewish literature, Yiddish liter-
ature and writers, and ~nglo-Jewish' peri-
odicals. Concludes with Jewish Influence 
in American Publishing: 
Malin, Irving, ed. Contemporary American-
Jewish Literature: Critical Essays. Bloom-
ington, IN: Indiana Univ., 1973. 
Includes a bibliography of American-
Jewish literary criticism. 
Mersand, Joseph. Traditions in American 
Literature: A Study of Jewish Characters 
and Authors. Port Washington, N.Y.: Ken-
nikat Press, 1939, reissued 1968. 
96 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 
Includes essays on Jewish American 
novelists, poets, and dramatists, as well 
as bibliographies. 
Walden, Daniel, ed. Studies in American 
Jewish Literature. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY, 
1975- . Annual. 
____ . Twentieth-Century American-
Jewish Fiction Writers. Detroit: Gale, 1984. 
(Dictionary of Literary Biography, v. 28.) 
Authors 
Look under individual authors' names in the 
subject catalog to locate biographical and 
bibliographical information, and criticism of 
their work. Examples: 
ROTH, PHILIP-BIBLIOGRAPHY 
ROTH, PHILIP-CRITICISM AND IN-
TERPRETATION 
Bibliographies 
list sources for specific topics. Examples in-
clude: 
Blackman, Murray. A Guide to Jewish 
Themes in American Fiction 1940-1980. 
Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1981. 
Nadel, Ira Bruce. Jewish Writers of North 
America: a Guide to Information Sources. 
Detroit: Gale, 1981. 
Journal Articles 
may be found by using subject indexes to 
periodicals. Examples: 
Arts and Humanities Citation Index, 1976-
Use the Permuterm Subject Index. 
Humanities Index, 1974-
See: •~merican literature-Jewish au-
thors" 
"Jewish literature" 
Index to Jewish Periodicals, 1963-
See: "Literature, American" 
"Literature, Jewish" 
MLA International Bibliography of Books and 
Articles on the Modern Languages and 
Literatures, 1919-
Use the American literature section. 
Note the chronological subdivi-
sions. Since 1981, a subject index 
volume is also available. 
Book Reviews 
may be found by using various indexes. Ex-
amples: 
Book Review Digest, 1905-
Book Review Index, 1965-
Humanities Index, 1974-
Use the book review section in rear of 
volume. 
An Index to Book Reviews in the Human-
ities, 1960-
Index to Jewish Periodicals, 1963-
See: "Book Reviews" 
Dissertations 
may be found by consulting: 
Comprehensive Dissertation Index, 
1861-
Dissertation Abstracts International, 
1938-
Customized searches on specific disserta-
tion topics are available from University 
Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Ml. 
Harriet Reiter, who compiled this Pathfinder 
in her capacity as Jewish Studies Librarian 
at the Hornbake Library of the University of 
Maryland, recently accepted a position as 
Reference Librarian and Coordinator of Col-
lection Development at Montgomery College 
in Rockville, MD. 
Register of Judaica Bibliographies in Progress 
Barry Walfish 
University of Toronto 
Toronto, Canada 
It has been proposed that a regular column be set up in Judaica Librarianship to register work in progress in Judaica 
bibliography. This would help to eliminate unnecessary duplication and might encourage cooperation on specific projects. 
Anyone working on a project in Judaica bibliography is encouraged to send information about it to Barry Walfish, Univer-
sity of Toronto Library, Toronto, Canada, M5S 1A5. The following information should be included: 
1. Precise topic of the bibliography. 
2. Its scope: type of material included (popular or scholarly, primary or secondary, etc.); time span covered; languages 
covered, etc. 
3. Plans for publication. Include only if contract signed with publisher (for monographs) or bibliography accepted by 
a journal. Include projected date of publication if known. 
4. Plans for updating bibliography. 
5. Name and institutional affiliation of compiler. 
As examples, the following are projects that the editor of this column is currently engaged in: 
A. 1. A Bibliography of the Karaites 
2. To include all primary material in all languages both in print and in manuscript that is accessible to Western 
scholars and as much Soviet material that is possible. All secondary material of a scholarly and popular nature 
will also be included except newspaper and encyclopedia articles. 
3. Publication arrangements not confirmed. 
4. Bibliography will be updated. 
5. Barry Walfish, University of Toronto Library. 
B. 1. A Bibliography of Medieval Jewish Biblical Exegesis 
2. To include all Jewish commentaries on the Bible, in print or in manuscript, written in the Middle Ages (900-1500). 
Pr,incipal languages are Hebrew and Judea-Arabic. Only secondary material dealing with specific commentaries 
and their identification will be included. 
3. Publication arrangements not confirmed. 
4. Bibliography will be updated. 
5. Barry Walfish, University of Toronto Library. 
Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 97 


Pathfinder on American Jewish Literature

Simon, Ralph R.

SYNAGOGUE LIBRARIES 
Reading Motivation Ideas for Synagogue Libraries 
Margot S. Berman 
Introduction 
The synagogue librarian's contact with stu-
dents in an after-school and weekend set-
ting is limited by the need to share enrich-
ment periods, which compete for non-
classroom time. In addition, especially if the 
school is a large one, the librarian rarely has 
an opportunity to discern each student's 
reading skill and interests. How to forge a 
connection between books and readers is 
the focus of the program ideas which fol-
low. The reward-beyond-the-reading is the 
favored approach. 
We all know that synagogue librarians are 
not only receptive to, but are also anxiously 
seeking, reading program designs. The 
plans which follow should serve as a stimu-
lus for the future exchange of additional suc-
cessful reading motivation ideas. Send your 
proven schemes to the editor; your col-
leagues will be grateful. 
Finally, there is that old saw, "You can lead 
a horse to water but you cannot make him 
drink:' True, but your job is to "Make Him 
Thirsty:' 
Margot S. Berman is the Librarian of Tem-
ple Beth Am in Miami, Florida, and the Con-
tributing Editor for SYNAGOGUE LIBRARIES 
of Judaica Librarianship. 
Temple Beth Am 
Miami, FL 
Helping Books Compete with Technology 
in a Congregational Setting 
Ralph R. Simon 
Temple Emanu El 
University Heights, OH 
The traditional role of the congregational 
librarian is to encourage youngsters to be-
come readers of Jewish books, and, in a 
technology-oriented world, librarians 
need-more than ever-to develop meth-
ods for motivating youngsters to read and 
love Jewish children's books. Even though 
contemporary Jewish children's literature is 
of better literary and artistic quality than was 
formerly the case, and recently published 
Bible stories and books about Jewish cus-
toms, folklore, and tradition offer more diver-
sity and are more appealing than earlier 
publications, it is simply not enough to place 
a volume on the shelf and forget about it. 
We have to use various techniques-from 
arranging and displaying books in unique 
and attractive ways, to direct involvement 
of young readers-in order to develop and 
sustain their appetite for Jewish children's 
books. 
Physical Arrangement 
In our synagogue library, we have used 
what might best be described as a "mer-
chandising" technique to display books. Ap-
proximately a dozen books are stood up or 
Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 99 I 
I 
I 
, ! 
placed in display holders. This makes the 
covers clearly visible (see photo). 
Since most of today's juvenile books have 
attractive covers, we shelve all juvenile 
books in eight custom-built, wooden picture-
book bins arranged along both sides of a 
cabinet. By placing books sideways in these 
units, young patrons view the front cover of 
each book- instead of only the spine as in 
traditional shelving. The bin arrangement 
also facilitates quicker shelving and pro-
vides for a neater, as well as a more attrac-
tive library environment. The bins are on 
wheels and can be easily relocated for col-
lection rearrangement. In short, a high de-
gree of flexibility has been achieved by 
using picture-book shelving for older chil-
dren's books, as well as for picture-books. 
Storytelling for Younger Children 
To acquaint youngsters with Jewish chil-
dren's literature and to directly involve them, 
a creative storytelling technique is used. As 
an example, we have always given children 
a small piece of challah at the conclusion 
of the reading of Bembleman's Bakery. We 
try to find stories with repetitive words or 
phrases. These are particularly well suited 
for storytelling use, as youngsters can be 
"prompted" to repeat the phrase at a spe-
cific point. This is a technique that en-
courages attentiveness, and helps children 
to "enter" the story. 
Challenging Older Children 
This past year, the staff of the local Jewish 
Community Center let it be known that they 
would be running a city-wide Academic 
Challenge for Jewish Book Month. Our idea 
was to start the Academic Challenge ear-
lier in our own school-at the very start of 
the school year, to be exact. Our goal was 
to pique student reading interest for a period 
longer than just the few weeks prior to Jew-
ish Book Month, when the event was to cul-
minate. Each student in our religious school 
received information about the Academic 
Challenge, and the reading-list of about 
twenty books from which the questions in 
the Challenge were drawn. During class 
visits, the idea of the Academic Challenge 
was reinforced by providing brief highlights 
of the books on the list. This encouraged 
the students to achieve the six-book mini-
mum reading requirement necessary for 
participation in the JCC city-wide Academic 
Challenge. 
The actual JCC Academic Challenge event 
involved teams of eight students. Each team 
was grade-related, but team members were 
drawn from several congregations. Ques-
tions were sufficiently specific that one had 
to have read the book to respond correctly. 
Prizes were given to all members of the win-
ning team. Students on the remaining 
teams were given certificates of partici-
pation. 
The JCC Challenge attracted a large num-
ber of students. All twenty titles were read 
by some of the children. The contest served 
to familiarize youngsters who themselves 
may have read only six books with a broad 
cross-section of Jewish literature. Even 
those youngsters who did not participate in 
the contest had a chance to be exposed to 
Jewish literature and to experience the ex-
citement generated by Jewish literature. 
Dr. Ralph R. Simon is the Librarian of the Sin-
del/ Library, Temple Emanu El, University 
Heights, Ohio. He is also Vice President for 
Publications of the Association of Jewish 
Libraries. 
Editor's Note: 
Comparing a "Hot" with a 
"Cool" Medium 
Marcia W. Posner 
It would be interesting to have the older chil-
dren compare the same fiction title in two 
media, using Berman's outline for writing 
a book report for a work of fiction (see 
below). 
The book is a "hot" medium because it de-
mands reader involvement and understand-
ing in order to reach the reader-in other 
words, in order to exist for that reader. A film, 
filmstrip, or videotape that is played is there, 
whether or not the viewer participates (un-
less the viewer shuts his eyes and stuffs his 
ears); thus it is a "cool" medium. 
Books and films treat stories and charac-
ters differently. Students might list what a 
book does better than film medium, and 
what film does better than the printed page. 
Dr. Marcia W Posner, co-editor of Judaica 
Librarianship, did her doctoral studies at 
New York University in the field of Commu-
nication Technology in Education. 
100 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 
Read a Book; Do a Mitzvah 
Lillian N. Schwartz 
Temple Emanu-EI 
Providence, RI 
The Temple Emanu-EI Library, in conjunc-
tion with its religious school, created a read-
ing incentive program for Jewish Book 
Month called "Climb the Double Mitzvah 
Ladder!' The "double mitzvah" consists of 
(1) reading a Jewish book, and (2) contribut-
ing to another's welfare through the Jewish 
Braille Institute. 
An oversized poster of a ladder was drawn 
and hung in the library. As each student 
presented a written report of a book read 
from our library, his/her name was added 
to a step, beginning from the bottom step. 
At step three, a donation was made in honor 
of that student to the Jewish Braille Insti-
tute of America. At the top of the ladder, step 
seven, another gift was made to the Braille 
Institute, and a bookplate (figure 1) was 
placed in a book in our children's collection 
honoring that student. (Donations to the 
Jewish Braille Institute in honor of students 
were made through the Temple's Men's 
Club.) 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
; TEMPLE EMANU-EL ~ 
~ LIBRARY ~ 
i ..JEWISH BOOK MONTH ; 
~ S746 
~ ~ i:m:H3 ~ i ill]l]ill ~ TIID tTifil ,..._ 
~ .JEWISH BRAILLE ..--.. 
; · . INSTITUTE 
~ rm ~ Cill' 
~ 
; MID) CfilIBillIID) 'j]fil 
~ IBffi!Iilll] ~
i ~ )JR?  
~ [Jlffi~ 
~ -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Figure 1. Bookplate honoring stu-
dents who have read seven books. 


Helping Books Compete with Technology in a Congregational Setting

Posner, Marcia W.

Book Mensch: A Reading Motivation Game for Jewish Summer Camps 
Purpose 
Book Mensch was created to encourage 
children in the residential summer camps 
supported by UJA-Federation of Jewish 
Philanthropies of New York to read Jewish-
content books during their vacation and to 
learn how Jewish values or concepts relate 
to daily life, thereby providing discussion 
topics for Onegs. 
Materials 
Each camp was supplied with a Book 
Mensch Chart (figure 1); reading log mark-
ers; bookmarks and stickers with the Book 
Mensch logo; reader response forms (fig-
ure 2); certificates (figure 3); a list of Jew-
ish concepts; and a bibliography of books 
with Jewish values. Each camp also re-
ceived a paperback library of appropriate 
books-with characters whose thoughts or 
actions are influenced by Jewish values. 
Marcia W. Posner 
UJA-Federation 
New York, NY 
How to Play 
Reading and reacting to a book allows the 
player to advance along the Path of Jewish 
Values to the next station. The stations are 
labeled with positive Jewish values. Be-
tween stations are boulder-like obstacles, 
tabeled with negative terms such as "lashon 
hara;' "pride;' "greediness;' "worship of many 
gods;' etc. The object of the "game" is to 
reach "The Kingdom of Mensch/echkeif' in 
the "Land of Mitzvot." There are no penal-
ties, and no winners or losers, in the Book 
Mensch game. 
Upon joining, each child receives a Book 
Mensch bookmark and chooses a book. 
When the book is read and returned, the 
child receives his/her reading log marker 
and enters name, class, etc. and the title of 
the book. After the child reacts to the book 
on a form or orally- not with the plot of the 
story, but with an explanation of why the 
characters in the story act the way they 
'' ' 
do-his/her reading log marker may be 
tacked on station #1 of the chart (or a 
smaller marker can be used and the read-
ing log filed by the librarian). With each book 
read and reacted to, the child's marker ad-
vances one station along the path. After the 
third book, the child receives a "Book 
Mensch" sticker (which could be converted 
to a button during the Arts and Crafts period 
of camp). After the fifth book, the child 
receives a Book-Mensch Certificate. The 
certificates were awarded individually in 
some camps, or during a ceremony at the 
end-of-season banquet in others. 
The idea can be duplicated by copying and 
enlarging the chart in figure 1, or better yet, 
by using a whole room for the journey to 
Menschlechkeit, with stations around the 
room. There~ no restrictions on the copy-
ing of Book Mensch materials illustrating 
this article. 
free PLAY BOOK MENSCH 
WUH 
Figure 1. Book Mensch chart. 
Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 105 
i 
! 
Book Mensch Response Form 
My name is _________________ Class ___ _ 
Room# ____ School ________________ _ 
The book I read is ___________________ _ 
The main character (or characters) changed their way of thinking and acting 
because: ________________________ _ 
(Use the reverse side if you need more room) 
I would have handled the situation (explain how and why) _____ _ 
(Use the reverse side if you need more room.) 
Figure 2. 
BOOK MENSCH AWARD 
Presented to 
for making friends with many new books 
and for gaining an understanding 
of what it takes to be a mensch. 
Group ____ _ Age ___ _ 
Awarded by 
this __ day of __ _ 
Comnd .. lononS!,lnagogueH,.Jatlons 
11.J"fl~hd,uatlon of J-,l•h PhllanthYDple, 
~ 
Figure 3. Book Mensch Award 
Certificate. 
Dr. Marcia W. Posner is Library Consultant 
for UJA-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies 
of New York and organized its Reiss/Wiener 
Library. 
106 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 


Book Mensch: A Reading Motivation Game for Jewish Summer Camps

Walfish, Barry

Recent Jewish Publishing in Argentina: A Mixed Blessing

Association of Jewish Libraries

Index of Advertisers 
Name Page 
Aronson Publishers ....... 28, 45 
Feldheim ................... 52 
Garland Publishing ........... 26 
Gimelson ................... 22 
Goldman ................... 88 
Ideal ...................... 61 
NAB Software Systems ....... 16 
Saur (K.G.) Inc ............... 55 
Thayer Jacoby .............. 37 
Judaica Li~rarianship is an excellent advertising medium for publishers, 
jobbers, library suppliers, bookstores and producers of software. The jour-
nal is received not only by the full range of Judaica libraries, but also 
by schools of library science and major universities in the United States 
and abroad. It presents a unique opportunity for businesses to reach a 
select consumer audience. 
The journal trim size is 8½" x 11'~ image area 7¼" x 9½'~ Advertising 
rates are as follows: 
Space Charges Additional Charges 
(For Camera Ready Copy) (If Typesetting Needed) 
$200 Fu II page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50 
$125 Half page ............................. $30 
$ 75 Quarter page .......................... $15 
Classifieds 
$ 3.00 per line 
$15.00 per inch 
Make checks payable to the Association of Jewish Libraries. Prepaid ads 
in U.S. dollars only. 
Submit inquiries, finished copy, and checks to: Sarah Levy, Advertising 
Manager, Judaica Librarianship, 42 Wilder Road, Monsey, NY 10952. Tel. 
(914) 354-1662. 
GUIDELINES FOR REVIEWERS 
Dr. Shimeon Brisman, Editor, APPROBATIONS 
Book reviews are expected to include descriptions, evaluations, and 
critical comments (preferably in this order). 
The descriptive part should acquaint the reader sufficiently with both 
the purpose and contents of the work. Data about the author, or addi-
tional information about the work (part of a series, illustrations, etc.), 
may be included in this part. 
The evaluation of the material should consist of an objective examina-
tion of the contents, a spot checking of sources, and summarization 
of findings (whether the work meets the stated objectives of the author, 
whether the work meets scholarly standards, etc.). Critical comments 
pertaining to the technical aspects of the work (arrangement of mate-
rial, order of chapters, bibliography, etc.) may be included in this section. 
Basic criticism, including the reviewer's opinions and final judgment 
of the work, should be relegated to the end of the review. 
108 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 


Index of Advertisers

Adler, Elhanan

The Use of Israeli Machine-Readable Cataloging by American Libraries: A Proposal

Vol. 4:1 Front Matter

Singerman, Robert

, 
REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 
AJL Judaica Reference Book Award* 
Introductory Remarks 
The bibliographical quarterly Kiryat Sefer 
records 7847 entries just for the year 1984; 
this figure is most meaningful as an indica-
tor of the tremendous number of Jewish-
interest materials published world-wide in 
all languages. Without the conscientious 
labors of bibliographers, however, and with-
out bibliographical tools and reference 
guides, this torrential outpouring of litera-
ture, all of it of potential interest to our re-
search collections, would be an unfathoma-
ble morass. As we inaugurate the newly 
established Harold J. Mason Judaica Ref-
erence Book Award, we are pleased to ac-
knowledge Dr. Mason's tangible support of 
our endeavors to encourage and promote 
the compilation of these much-needed tools 
that bring a semblance of order to the world 
of Jewish research and scholarship. Dr. 
Mason, who has a doctorate in Library 
Science from Columbia University, is the 
founder of Greenwood Press, a well-known 
publisher of reference works. Hazel Karp, 
the immediate past president of AJL, is to 
be commended for her tireless efforts to se-
cure permanent funding for the Judaica 
Reference Award. I also wish to thank 
Charles Cutter, Michael Grunberger, and 
Adaire Klein for serving with me on the Ref-
erence Book Award Committee. 
The winner of this year's award is, in many 
respects, a very special individual. Born in 
Lithuania, Berl Kagan's "university" was the 
Kovno Ghetto, where he was a member of 
* Remarks made at the Banquet of the 22nd 
Annual Convention of the Association of Jew-
ish Libraries held in Livingston, New Jersey, 
June 23, 198Z 
Robert Singerman 
University of Florida 
Gainesville, FL 
the Underground Zionist Central Commit-
tee during the dark years of 1941 to 1945, 
when Jewish Europe-as Berl knew it-
collapsed. His pre-war experience as a Jew-
ish newspaper editor of Dos Vort in Kovno 
served him well as a refugee in Italy, where 
he edited Baderech on behalf of the Cen-
tral Committee of Jewish Refugees in Italy. 
Many of you already know our honored re-
cipient from his combined twenty-five years 
of experience as a librarian at the Vivo In-
stitute for Jewish Research and the Jewish 
Theological Seminary of America, spanning 
the years 1954 to 1979. 
The product of a rich Jewish education in 
his native Lithuania, Berl Kagan was none-
theless denied those formal, "accredited" 
academic opportunities that each of us in 
America takes for granted. We honor him 
tonight for his Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers, 
an 800-page biographical lexicon of Yiddish 
writers that updates and extends the stan-
dard eight-volume Leksikon fun der nayer 
yidisher literatur. I am reminded of the Pass-
over Hagadah, Berl, for the lexicon would 
have been enough, but then you created an 
additional miracle-a section listing 5,800 
pseudonyms of Yiddish authors and jour-
nalists. 
A vast project of this sort would normally 
be undertaken only by a staff of research-
ers with expenses such as travel, postage, 
and overhead being absorbed by a host in-
stitution or underwritten by a foundation. In 
his introduction, Berl compares his difficult 
five years of compilation and verification 
work on the Leksikon to the parting of the 
Red Sea. The analogy is quite appro-
priate- in more ways than one-because 
neither Berl nor the Jews who fled Egypt 
in the exodus received National Endowment 
for the Humanities funding! Few of us would 
90 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 1987-Winter 1988 
have the tenacity and love of yidishkeyt to 
pursue such an ambitious effort single-
handedly, given the geographic dispersion 
of Yiddish literary culture and journalism in 
all of their post-Holocaust manifestations. 
We are therefore indebted to Berl Kagan for 
his creativity and fortitude under such ad-
verse circumstances. Yiddish culture is truly 
enriched by your achievement; the Leksikon 
is clearly a monumental labor of love, and 
it is my pleasure to award you the Harold 
J. Mason Judaica Reference Book Award 
for 1987. 
Robert Singerman is Head of the Price Li-
brary of Judaica at the University of Florida 
at Gainesville. He is also Vice President of 
the Research and Special Library Division 
of the Association of Jewish Libraries and 
Chairman of its Reference Book Award Com-
mittee. 
Berl Kagan's Leksikon fun Yidish-Shraybers 
was reviewed at length by Dina Abramowicz 
in Judaica Librarianship, vol. 3, no. 1-2 
(1986-1987), pp. 28-30, 34. 
As this issue was going to press, the 
editors learned that the recipient of 
AJL!s Harold Mason Reference Book 
Award for 1987 is Shimeon Brisman 
for A History and Guide to Judaic En-
cyclopedias and Lexicons. We hope to 
publish Dr. Brisman's acceptance 
speech in the forthcoming issue of 
the journal. 


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