Seminary Book Expert Wades Through Mud to Help Florence
NEW YORK—"We went to study
the damage, to learn the needs,
and perhaps to demonstrate tech-
niques. We ended in mud to our
ankles, working like day laborers
in damp, cold buildings."
So Dr. Menahem Schmelczer,
librarian of The Jewish Theologi-
cal Seminary of America described
his recent experiences in flood-
ravaged Florence.
"The skill and resourcefulness
of the Italian people, and the
energy with which they have
tackled this Herculean job, was
an inspiration to all of us," Dr.
Schmelczer continued. "In the face
of their courage, and the deter-
mination with which they worked
to save works of art, books, and
archives, even before their own
homes and household goods had
been retrieved from the water,
made it impossible for us to do
less."
Dr. Schmelczer was one of
the group of restorators invited
by CRIA, the Committee for the
Restoration of Italian Art, to
help flood-battered Florence save
its treasures. Dr. Schmelczer's
special expertise derived from
his own extensive experience
with water-damaged books fol-
lowing the disastrous fire last
April in the Seminary library.
In the seven months since that
near catastrophe, some 150,000
books have been dried, and are
now being. repaired, and restored
— perhaps the largest library sal-
vage operation ever attempted
until the current crisis in Florence,
in which estimates indicate per-
haps 2,000,000 books are involved.
Explaining that about a dozen
small libraries, each housing from
10 to 100,000 books, had been
flooded, in addition to the publi-
cized damage to the Biblioteca
Nazionale, Dr. Schmelczer agreed
with estimates that it might take
20 years to restore all the archives
of Florence to working order.
Because of his Hebrew back-' ready to sell or give to the Floren-
ground, Dr. Schmelczer was able tines if they are needed. "Books
to be particularly helpful to the should not be sent now," he em-
library of the Florentine Jewish phasized, "but word that they are
community.
available will be encouraging to
With the encouragement of Rev- the hard-pressed library workers.
Later in the salvage operation,
erend Dr. Fernando Belgrado,
skilled and semi-skilled personnel
chief rabbi of Florence, he was
will become increasingly impor-
able to sort through the thousands
tant. Coordination here of an ef-
books in this highly specialized
fort that would bring graduate
and valuable collection, selecting
students in library science to
those that were irreplaceable, or
Florence for long or short pe-
virtually so, for immediate treat-
riods will probably prove useful.
ment.
Libraries here might make
Members of the Florentine Jew-
ish community, and young Israelis available their own technical re-
studying or working in the area, sources, especially in the field of
volunteered their time and energy
in this aspect of the salvage proj-
ect, for which their knowledge of
Hebrew particularly fitted them.
Immediately upon his return, Dr.
Schmelczer received a letter from
Chief Rabbi Dr. Belgrado which
read in part:
"I wish to thank you also in
the name of my congregation for
the great help that you have
given us in directing the restora-
tion of our damaged books. Our
words cannot properly express
what we feel we owe you be-
cause of your work with the
Certified Master Watchmaker
material that we have always
and Jeweler
considered among the most pre-
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Asked what individuals and li-
braries in other countries could
do to help the Florentines at this
time, Dr. Schmelczer outlined four
needed projects:
We must remain attentive to the
appeals of the Italian people, wait-
ing for them to define their needs
and then responding to them. "This
is not a short term crisis, but an
on-going situation, in which we ,
should be prepared to help for
many years," said Dr. Schmelczer.
Libraries should begin immedi- '
ately preparing lists of duplicate
volumes which they would be
GEORGE OHRENSTEIN
Sephardic Jews Face Loss of Identity,
Leader Warns at Conference in NY
NEW YORK (JTA)—Sephardic
Jews are threatened with loss of
their spiritual identity, it was
stated here Monday night by Dr.
Solomon Gaon, the chief rabbi of
Sephardic Jewish communities in
the British Commonwealth.
He was the principal speaker at
a conference of leaders of the
Sephardic communities in the
United States, held at Yeshiva
University.
This, he said, is true even in
countries where Sephardic Jews
make up the majority of Jews,
such as Israel, Spain and France.
He attributed the development to
lack of leadership in Sephardic
Jewish communities and waning
commitment among the younger
generation.
In Israel, he contended, Sephar-
dic Jews "cannot make their in-
fluence felt because although they
live within Sephardic communities,
they are unable to make active
expressions of the Sephardic past
in present days."
In France, he said, "if some-
thing is not done very soon, we
may find that Sephardim will be
lost irretrievably and thereby
we shall be deprived of the in-
fluence of an important part of
world Jewry, rich in its past and
traditions."
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Even in Spain, Dr. Gaon added,
Sephardic Jewry faces a gloomy
future despite that country's lib-
eralization of laws to give re-
ligious minorities freedom of ex-
pression and worship because
the community has "no qualified
rabbis."
To take advantage of the op-
portunities inherent in the liberal-
ization of Spanish laws, he said,
"there must develop a spiritual
influence which will help the chil-
dren become committed to the
community and the older people
to look beyond the fight for every-
day bread." 1
Sephardic Jews trace their an- 1
cestry back to Spain and Portugal.
Their ritual and dialect differ
slightly from those of Central and
Eastern European Jews, known as
Ashkenazim. Many of the earliest
Jewish immigrants to America
were Sephardic Jews, descendants
of those expelled from Spain dur-
ing the Inquisition in the 15th
Century.
Since World War II, Dr. Gaon
pointed out, Sephardic Jews have
been on the move again. Many
have settled in Israel, while others
have founded new communities in
Italy, England, Canada and North
and South America. It is estimated
that there are approximately 16,-
000,000 Jews in the world, with
about 2,000.000 of them having
Sephardic backgrounds.
Noted Biologist
Marcus Hartog, a 19th Century
British-Jewish biologist, was a
leader in the field of research into
the reproductive processes in ani-
mal and plant life.
.
manuscript restoration and bind-
ing. "These skills," Dr. Schmelczer
explained, "are in short supply the
world over. I have already volun-
teered to let the craftsmen who do
the Seminary's work in this area
salvage a number of the Florentine
works, and I hope and expect that
other libraries, here and abroad,
will follow suit."
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, December 23, 1966-3
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