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Main Judaic Library (Główna Biblioteka Judaistyczna
'. „Rzeczpospolita”, s. A5, 7 maja 2016. or Centralna Biblioteka Judaistyczna) is a currently defunct
The building of the former Main Judaic Library is currently the headquarters of the
Main Judaic Library (Główna Biblioteka Judaistyczna'. „Rzeczpospolita”, s. A5, 7 maja 2016. or Centralna Biblioteka Judaistyczna) is a currently defunct
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
, which was gathering collections concerning Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
and the history of Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
in Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
.
Description
It was created as The Great Synagogue of Warsaw’s library between the years 1879 to 1880 at the behest of Ludwik Natanson, who had come up with the idea in 1860. The funds for setting up the library were raised through public collections. Its existence was further assured by contributions from private founders along with a committee of the synagogue. The Historical Commission was functioning within the Library for many years, up until 1914. Its main purpose was to gather collections, including documents fromqahal
The ''qahal'' ( he, קהל) was a theocratic organizational structure in ancient Israelite society according to the Hebrew Bible. See column345-6 The Ashkenazi Jewish system of a self-governing community or kehila from medieval Christian Europe ...
s’ archives and variety of manuscripts. Samuel Poznański was in charge of the Commission. Mojżesz Moszkowski was a long-standing librarian.
In 1927, Moses Schorr led activities to build a new headquarters of the Library. The new facility of the Main Judaic Library, erected between 1928-1936 at Tłomackie Street 3/5, was designed by Edward Eber. It was also the headquarters of the Institute for Judaic Studies. The building was designed in modernized historicism (semi-modernism), corresponding to the architecture of the Great Synagogue.
From November 1940 until March 1942, the building was within the Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...
borders. It hosted the headquarters of the Jewish Social Self-Help, a staging point for Jews forcibly resettled from Germany and a storage unit for furniture stolen in the ghetto. The edifice endured the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; pl, powstanie w getcie warszawskim; german: link=no, Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's ...
and the Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...
, although it sustained damage. The Library’s collections were looted by the Germans. Some were restored after the war (according to other sources, the Library had lost all of its stock, i.e. 40,000 units).
On 16 May 1943 there was a fire in the Library which had begun after the explosion in the Great Synagogue. Traces of the fire on the lobby’s floor are visible today. The building’s address was Świerczewskiego Avenue 79 until the name of Tłomackie Street was restored in the 1980s.Tadeusz Podgórski: ''Zwiedzamy Warszawę''. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo „Sport i Turystyka”, 1956, p. 297.
The building of the former Main Judaic Library is currently the headquarters of the Jewish Historical Institute
The Jewish Historical Institute ( pl, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny or ''ŻIH''; yi, ייִדישער היסטאָרישער אינסטיטוט), also known as the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, is a public cultural and research ...
.
The part of the ghetto that included the Great Synagogue and the Library in the years 1940-1942 has been commemorated by the Warsaw Ghetto boundary marker on the corner of Bielańska and Corazziego streets in 2008.
The mission of the Main Judaic Library is continued by the Central Jewish Library
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
project.
In May 2016, the prewar inscription ''Main Judaic Library'' in Polish and Hebrew were recreated and placed above the main entrance.
Bibliography
* Zofia Borzymińska, Rafał Żebrowski: ''Polski słownik judaistyczny. Dzieje, kultura, religia, ludzie''. T. 1. Warszawa: Prószyński i S-ka, 2003, s. 189-191. .References