Seminary Library Restoration Dramatic Tale

Israel Orchestra to Visit
Greece Despite Dissent

NEW YORK—The work goes on,1 lions of the New York Library and nary library, about 1,500,000 cards
three years and 31 months after a I Hebrew Union College. The Brook- must be prepared. A team of six
fire destroyed 70,000 volumes in lyn Jewish
Center contributed its experts has catalogued about
•
•
•
the Jewish Theological Seminary
1 25
Y.
,
library, world famous for its treas-
One interesting facet of restora-
Although the rare book and
ury of Hebraica and Judaica.
tion was completing partially de- manuscript room was not affected
"Operation Book Salvage" is pos-
stroyed books through the addition by the fire, it was decided to
sibly the most dramatic example
of photographed copies of missing microfilm all manuscripts and the
of library restoration ever attempt-
pages. This ingenious task of
rarest books. The films have been
ed.
scholarship and research con-
stored in vaults. A special alarm
tinues
under
the
direction
of
system has been installed as well
The process of restoring some
Rabbi Joseph Weiss, who has
as carbon dioxide extinguishing
150,000 water-logged books started
been aided by the cooperation of equipment.
only hours after the flames were
;,,libraries
both
here
and
abroad.
extinguished that April 18, 1966.
The work of re-establishing the
During the past two years, the library is going on and will con-
After a number of experiments,
library
has
rebuilt
its
pre-fire
hold-
tinue,
by the most conservative of
it was found that the most effec-
tive method of drying was to insert ings through private collections ac- estimates, for another 10 years.
quired
as
gifts.
A
reference
library
paper toweling between each page
To spell out the obvious is often
of every book — a herculean task of 8,000 volumes, the collection of
involving an estimated 2,500,000 the late Rabbi Solomon Goldman of to call it in question. —Eric Hoffer.
Chicago,
was
presented
to
the
operations. Volunteers appeared
from colleges and churches in the library by his family in March. i i
; . The family of the late Rabbi
area of Morningside Heights and
congregations and religious schools Felix A. Levy presented his collec-
tion of some 8,500 volumes to the
all over the metropolitan area.
library last December. Many of
for a lifetime of
Normal class schedules were these are basic texts for. rabbinic
proud possession
not resumed for two full weeks,
research which are now out of
while the initial salvage work
GEORGE OHRENSTEIN
print.
CERTIFIED MASTER
went on, 'with many students I Officials of the Conservative
WATCHMAKER AND JEWELER
working round the clock to save
You will find a collection of
ycit d h ed
e itf tr ra ery
claso sf ify co a n ll.
OMEGA WATCHES
as many of the precious volumes
its books r
S
Priced from $65.00
as possible.
gress method, which requires
Authorized Factory Agency
Technical Center For
Help poured in from many direc- classification by title, author and
Omega & Tissot Watches
tions. A local butcher offered the I subject matter—all told, seven
HARVARD ROW MALL
use of his trucks; a laundry pro- cards for one classification. For
353-3146
H Mile & Lahser
vided jackets for the volunteers; a the 200,000 volumes in the semi-
moving company supplied hundreds
of cartons, boxes and dollies.
Xerox Corp. offered reproduction
equipment and General Foods
worked with library experts on
quick-freeze drying techniques.
Contributions, ranging from pen-
nies from children in a local nur
sery to $100.000 from the Ford
Foundation promised to ease some
of the cost involved in the salvage
work. And experts in preservation
and binding from the universities
in the area and the Library of
Congress offered their services.
The life of the books was to be
spared.
A nucleus library was assembled
from usable volumes, and from
thousands of gift books from in-
dividuals and the duplicate collec-
-

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The public
council of the Israel Philharmonic
Orchestra said Sunday that the or-
chestra will make a visit to Greece
in August despite the protests of
New Left and other Israeli dissent-
ers who oppose the visit because
of the "dictatorial nature" of the
present Greek regime. The council
said it had decided that the orches-
tra should carry out its scheduled
participation in a musical in Athens.

SZ

OMEGA

LOT G
Northland

LOT 4
Eastland

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