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T
his fall's opening of what is
being touted as "the
Library of Congress of the
Jewish People" brings
together what is believed to be the
largest repository of Jewish archival
material outside Israel.
Under one roof, at the Center for
Jewish History in New York City, one
can now find an extensive book,
archive and art collection.
Included among the items are the orig-
inal handwritten draft of Emma Lazarus'
1883 "Give me your tired, your poor"
poem that went on to be inscribed on
the base of the Statue of Liberty; the old-
est American Jewish cookbook; Sandy
Koufax's Brooklyn Dodgers jersey; and
the eyeglasses of Jewish Enlightenment
thinker Moses Mendelssohn.
The institution is a consortium of
five Jewish organizations brought
together into a $50-million facility
designed specifically for the purpose.
By joining together, the partner organ-
izations bring together under one roof
several areas of Jewish history — the
American Jewish Historical Society,
which focuses on the U.S. Jewish experi-
ence; the American Sephardi Federation;
the Leo Baeck Institute, whose holdings
are on Jews in German-speaking coun-
tries; the Yeshiva University Museum;
and the YIVO Institute for Jewish
Research, which addresses Eastern
European Jewish history.
The organizations will maintain sep-
arate boards and budgets but share
resources and jointly sponsor various
events.
The center's primary mission is to
serve scholars of Jewish history, but
the center and its individual partners
also will offer services of general inter-
est, hosting art exhibits, concerts and
public lectures, as well as assisting peo-
ple with family history projects.
A gleaming new building on a block
of brownstones in Manhattan's
Chelsea neighborhood, the center is
physically impressive, with state-of-
the-art computers, a custom-designed
stone floor in the lobby with intricate
biblical-themed designs, extensive
gallery and display space and jade and
teal detail trimming the wood-pan-
eled, skylit reading room.
The center is earning mostly praise,
both from scholars and the partner
organizations.
Michael Fedberg, executive director of
the American Jewish Historical Society,
said the center will "provide a meeting
ground on which scholars from differ-
ent institutions can interact and enrich
thinking" about Jewish history.
Carl Rheins, executive director of
YIVO, said the new facility dramati-
cally improves his organization's ability
to properly store materials, offer pub-
lic programs and serve researchers.
"Our previous mansion was not air-
conditioned, not properly humidified
for documents and had no adequate
space for researchers to work," he said.
"We're here now in a modern center
with a magnificent temperature-con-
trolled storage area, and state-of-the
art computers, phone systems and
faxes."
Natan Meir, a doctoral candidate
in Jewish history at Columbia
University, said the center is a "won-
derful place to work."
"The reading room is beautiful, and I
think it's fantastic that all the organiza-
tions will be under one roof," he said.
However, some scholars question
whether investing so lavishly in a
physical building, particularly in
Manhattan, where real estate is expen-
sive, is the best use of resources.
Instead, they argue, the center might
have been wiser to store the materials
in a more modest facility and focus on
making them all available over the
Internet.
Jonathan Sarna, Braun professor of
modern Jewish history at Brandeis
University, said he is concerned that
so much money is going into bricks
and mortar that there won't be money
available for the scholarly programs of
the center."
The majority of the center's operat- -
ing budget goes toward maintaining
the building, but that does not include
the services covered in the partner
organizations' budgets, say officials of
the organizations.
Currently, the center's resources are
not available on the Internet and the
separate catalogs for the organiza-
"