Preserving Heritage

T iresitair, Acid 5, I

THE IRA KALIF- MAN
CHAPEL

"saittER FOR PA55.04TR

PASSOVilt:

'?

SWOME$,&01iLVIEEXTRAS

mateaWINOMMnj

e-Tuc..,daVe Nevis Batting

>Reny Weinzaft, Off.lc• Cm . .x1 4 :11.5:

Ci The Lev' 41 T.edalta .

i• Marvin Berfin

*ONLINE DEBUT: ...Net Garay- Your connection to metro Detmit Jewish
online resources.

.Pgihlrfte0WEEKAMOVAMMeng.MeNMATAM.

^w

X

)COYER STORY:
Shut In The City
t Surrounded byneglect, the Isaac Agree
Domstosin Synagogue is a tenacious outpost of
spirituality.

K 03 0 ,10: A Jewish Viewpoint
Ethnicity, Lav An d A Handshake

( Past Cover Stories

Where to buytheJe..4so Nmes in
pent

GAiinEiMitta.,f0.00k
Found under GENERATI-NS
Category: CULTURAL & SOCIAL

Grads and ProtassionalstGAP
U ol M Mittel
1429 Hit Street
Arn Arbor, kb 48104
Phone:(734) 769-0500
Fax (734) 769-1934
E-mail: ianhilletiPurnich.edu
We bsite:

Offices
27876 Franklin Rf.ed
SoLaifteltl. KC. 48034

r CONTACTS

HOMEPAtE

LIFE CYCLE:

Binhs
/44tneehs
• LogNements
',Weddings
.Annisen s
o Obauenes

EDITORIAL:
,EAtoliels
• Leiter;

EN1EFITAINNENT
Out & About
r DonnvFxclu,
Dirang Gtede

CVBER SPOT
One-Stop Shopping
Sholan Aleichem Revisited
Seen On The Net

National Yiddish Book Center founder
Aaron Lansky will speak at Birmingham
Temple's third annual book fair.

TAKE OUR SURVEY
end let us know whet you'd like to
see in JN Online

FEEDEU,CK

Emplo
Updated March 8

I'LiStAktS OtiiME
%NM .

Details: Grads end Professionals provid es en

ket in the office of Rabbi Bernard
Glassman. Worn out religious books
are given a proper burial, but these
were not siddurim.
n the late 1970s, Aaron Lansky
Lansky asked for the books, then
was working on a master's
began putting up fliers in delis and
degree in Eastern European
elsewhere to advertise his interest in
studies at McGill University in
collecting other discarded Yiddish vol-
Montreal when he became aware of a
umes. Soon, he said, "the phone was
serious problem.
ringing off the hook."
- Assigned Yiddish novels to read by
Lansky's two-year leave from grad
Professor Ruth Weiss (now at Harvard
school resulted in his becoming the
University), he encountered
founder and president of the
difficulty in completing his
Abb ve:
National Yiddish Book
work because the library usu-
Aaron Lansky:
Center. Told that there
ally had only one copy of the
looking
"Jews
are
might be 70,000 books in
reading material available.
for som ething
the Yiddish language in this
With everything out of print,
and I think its
country, he and his associ-
,,
Lansky and his classmates
thems elves.
ates surpassed that number
took to borrowing books
in their first six months of
from elderly Yiddish-speaking
collecting them. "Today we have a
people in the Jewish community.
million-and-a-half books, and we still
Then, Lansky heard about 900
get 1,000 books a year," he said.
books left behind in Ohio when a
Lansky will speak on the future of
scholar died. When no library wanted
Yiddish 8 p.m. Monday, April 19, at
them, they went to a paper shredder.
the Birmingham Temple, as part of its
"I was alarmed to learn that these
third annual book fair.
books were being destroyed" by genera-
The books collected by the
tions unable to read Yiddish, said Lansky.
National Yiddish Book Center are
Later, in his hometown of New
stored in its permanent building, a
Bedford, Mass., Lansky saw some old
wooden
structure whose architectural
Yiddish books piled up in a fruit bas-
style Lansky describes as "heimish

ESTHER ALLWEISS TSCHIRHART
Copy Editor

I

®o www.detroitjewishnews.com

4/9

—\

7_/