The Jewish Public Library or JPL (, ) is a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada, founded in 1914. The library contains the largest circulating collection of Judaica in North America. The JPL has close to 4000 members, and receives 700 to 800 visitors weekly. A constituent agency of Federation CJA, the Jewish Public Library is independent of the

Montreal Public Libraries Network The Montreal Public Libraries Network ( , previously ''Réseau des bibliothèques publiques de Montréal'') is the public library system on the Island of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. It is the largest French language public library system in North ...

and instead receives its funding from the city's Jewish community, membership fees, donations and endowments.

History

Founded in 1914, the library's early history is grounded in the

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

-speaking immigrants who fled Europe at the turn of the 20th century. The early homes of the JPL were in rented

cold water flat Cold Water Flat was an American band formed in 1990 by Paul Janovitz (vocals and guitar), Ted Silva (bass) and Paul Harding (author), Paul Harding (drums) when the trio studied at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Paul Janovitz is the younge ...

s on St. Urbain Street and, for 20 years, on the corner of Esplanade Avenue and Mount-Royal. In the early 1970s, the patterns of Jewish migration within the city had made it apparent that the library should move again, to be nearer to other Jewish agencies and organizations. The

Segal Centre for Performing Arts The Segal Centre for Performing Arts, formerly the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, is a theatre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 5170 Côte-Sainte-Catherine Road, chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, in the borough of Côte-des ...

, YM-YWHA Jewish community centre, Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, and all Federation CJA offices are now within a campus on the corner of Cote Ste. Catherine Road and Westbury Avenue in Montreal's Côte-des-Neiges sector.

Collection

The Jewish Public Library's collection of over 150,000 items is accessible online, including specialist collections in five languages. The Children's Library offers programs and activities with more than 30,000 items for children up to 14 years of age. The JPL is a full service lending and research

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

. 75% of the collection is Judaica, 25% general interest and popular fiction. The collection itself is oriented towards both

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and popular readerships, the Judaica collection being akin to most university libraries' Judaic collections. Members of Montreal's Orthodox Jewish community also use the library for religious works. The general collection attempts a diversity of popular and literary fiction, as well as an AV collection of first-run films on VHS and DVD, and audiobooks in Yiddish. The

Yiddish Book Center The Yiddish Book Center (formerly the National Yiddish Book Center), located on the campus of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States, is a cultural institution dedicated to the preservation of books in the Yiddish language, ...

has digitized many of these tapes and made them available on compact disc and free online in a joint project. The JPL's collections are primarily in English,

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, with other languages comprising works in its special non-circulating collections. Special collections include: * Rare books: Ranges from

incunabula An incunable or incunabulum (: incunables or incunabula, respectively) is a book, pamphlet, or broadside (printing), broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. The specific date is essentiall ...

to early Hebrew grammar books, liturgical works, kabbalistic treatises,

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

s, historical tracts, and travelogues. The earliest work in collection is a copy of

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

' ''Tractatus Judaice'' (1481). * Jewish Canadiana: A vertical file collection of clippings, pamphlets, chapbooks, unpublished manuscripts and other ephemera about all aspects of Jewish art, culture and intellectual activity in Canada by and about Jews. It includes unpublished collections of Montreal Jewish authors, scholars, journalists, labour organizers, musicians, such as those of Rochl Korn, Lea Roback, Sam Gesser, Reuven Brainin, and many of the city's early Jewish benevolent organizations. * Irving Layton collection: The personal library of the late

Irving Layton Irving Peter Layton, OC (March 12, 1912 – January 4, 2006) was a Romanian-born Canadian poet. He was known for his "tell it like it is" style which won him a wide following but also made him enemies. As T. Jacobs notes in his biography (2001 ...

, which includes annotated and signed copies of poetic works, philosophy, psychology, classics, literature, and an eclectic collection of non-fiction. * German Judaica collection: In 1999, a large donation of German Judaica was presented to the Library. The scope of this collection ranges from philosophy to theology, psychology, political science, and literature. * Ephemeral collection: A historical clippings file of Jewish life in the diaspora and Israel in Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian and other languages. * Closed stacks: This collection comprises fragile, controversial, and older Judaica material (19th century) in many languages, and parallels the library's general collection in scope and content. * Yizkor books: The library holds one of the largest collections of Yiddish and Hebrew Yizkor books in the world. These are the recorded histories of pre-Holocaust life in the eastern European shtetls, complete with photographs, lists of names, memoirs and the chronicled activities of the local Jewish communal organizations of each town. * Photographs, sheet music, and multimedia archive. * Periodicals: The Library holds collections of journals in English, French, Hebrew, and Yiddish. It includes one of the largest collection of Yiddish journals (print and microform) from Europe and Canada.

Activities

The Library has an active program of cultural events and educational workshops throughout the year. During Jewish Book Month,

Andrei Codrescu Andrei Codrescu (; born December 20, 1946) is a Romanian-born American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and commentator for National Public Radio. He is the winner of the Peabody Award for his film ''Road Scholar'' and the Ovid Prize for ...

Cynthia Ozick Cynthia Ozick (born April 17, 1928) is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist. Biography Cynthia Ozick was born in New York City. The second of two children, Ozick was raised in the Bronx by her parents, Celia (née Regelson) and ...

, and

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...

have all spoken at the library. It also stages dramatic readings in Hebrew, Yiddish musical evenings and Russian concerts and walking tours of Jewish Montreal are given throughout the year.

First Fruits First Fruits is a religious offering of the first agricultural produce of the harvest. In classical Greek, Roman, and Hebrew religions, the first fruits were given to priests as an offering to deity. Rome The first fruits of the field were off ...

is an annual literary anthology of student writing from local high school students, and it awards the J. I. Segal Prizes bi-annually to published writers of Jewish content in various languages. Many programs represent collaborations with other organizations such as the

Montreal Holocaust Museum The Montreal Holocaust Museum () is a museum located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is dedicated to educating people of all ages and backgrounds about the Holocaust, while sensitizing the public to the universal perils of antisemitism, racism, ...

, the Montreal Jewish Museum, and Bloomsday Montreal. The Archives offers exhibitions, tours, workshops and offers much of its content digitally.

External links

Jewish Public Library

References

*Caruso, Naomi, et al. ''Folk's lore: A history of the Jewish Public Library, 1914-1989 '' (Montreal: Jewish Public Library, 1989). {{Authority control Jewish Canadian literature Jewish educational organizations Jewish libraries Jewish organizations based in Canada Jews and Judaism in Montreal Libraries in Montreal Yiddish-language literature Yiddish culture in Quebec Libraries established in 1914 1914 establishments in Quebec

History

Collection

Activities

See also

Further reading

External links

References