Travel

A Yiddish Book Center
Preserves An Era

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KITCHENS • BATHROOMS
ENTERTAINMENT CENTERS
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32445 Schoolcraft • Livonia, MI •

The Yiddish Book Center.

313-261-5230

BARBARA KINGSTONE
Special to The Jewish News

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bout 1/8 of a mile from the
highway, on the campus of
Hampshire College in
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another era. New England architect
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2 dinners, 2 breakfasts, champagne toast,
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Allen Moore designed the National
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Yiddish Book Center from structures
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inspired by of Eastern European vil-
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Dinner at Mario's
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the unusual roof lines as inspiration.
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And
Aaron Lansky, founder and presi-
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dent of the only Yiddish book center
PRINCESS CRUISES, INDIA/ASIA — 14 DAYS
in North America which opened in
Feb. 12, 1998, Fr. $1664 (Inside) Fr. $1997 (Outside)
June 1997, can't be happier with the
outcome of the 37,000-square-foot
(Cruises Only — port charges included — Air and taxes additional)
building.
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After two unsuccessful years of try-
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ing to find an architect who under-
stood the needs of what Lansky envi-
BERKLEY TOURS AND TRAVEL, INC.
sioned, Moore hit the right note dur-
(248) 559-8620 OR 1-800-875-TOUR (8687)
ing their first meeting. He had con-
ceptualized a typical shtetl (a tradi-
tional Eastern European Jewish town),
meanwhile creating interior spaces to
house over 70,000 Yiddish books,
Experienced and personal service
exhibition halls, public areas, an audi-
FOR ALL YOUR
torium and an outdoor amphitheatre.
TRAVEL NEEDS
Lansky got what he wanted — "a
building that recalled the past without
At
being an imitation."
248 - 661 - 6677
The remarkable conquest of the
National Yiddish Book Center started
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germinating while Lansky was an
undergraduate at Hampshire College
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where he took a course in the
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What was it about their culture that
made them so different as to be per-
ceived as utterly antithetic to Fascism
ideology? They happened to end up
as victims but had lives and whole
constellations of experiences," says
Lansky.
As we walked through the spacious
airy bright, glass and light wood
building which houses the Center's
collection of Yiddish volumes and
150,000 out-of-print Yiddish and
Hebrew sheet music, Lansky recalls
how he gradually began to study mod-
em Jewish history. He learned to
speak Yiddish only to gain access to
historical sources. He recalls that the
more he learnt the more Yiddish liter-
ature began to open up but soon real-
ized that only 1/2 ofl percent of
Yiddish literature had been translated
into English even though 2/3 of the
Yiddish books were published in
North America.
It was estimated that there were
approximately 70,000 books still
recoverable. The challenge was to col-
lect them in 24 months. Little did
Lansky realize then, that Jews were far
more avid readers that he could have
imagined. His first public appeal for
unwanted books was in 1980. Within
a week over 200 letters arrived and
within a month 5000 books were
received. Now, 18 years later, he and
his staff of 30 have collected over 1.4
million volumes.
Lansky's goal is to furnish the
essential resources without which
modern Jewish scholarship is possible.
"I want to provide Yiddish books
which give access to a whole civiliza-
tion about Jewish life in Europe." His
second reason is to open up the books
collected and share them with a much
broader population. He sees a genuine
resurgence of modern Jewish culture
— a Jewish renaissance. "We have to
be mindful of its own antecedents." El

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