CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

The Jogger by David
Grossman with an
inscription to Toby
Holtzman by the author

26th Annual Celebration

Jewish Senior Life’s Eight Over Eighty
recognizes eight distinguished leaders in our
community, all over the age of 80, who have
demonstrated a lifetime of dedication to the Jewish
value of Tikkun Olam - Repairing the World.

FOR NOMINATION FORMS

www.jslmi.org/eight-over-eighty-event
or contact
Beth Tryon at 248-592-5026 TTY #711
Btryon@jslmi.org

Nominations will be accepted
through January 4, 2019

SAVE THE DATE

26th Annual Eight Over Eighty Event
Sunday, May 19, 2019

11:30am at Adat Shalom Synagogue

FOR SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION

PLEASE VISIT
www.jslmi.org/eight-over-eighty-event

48

October 25 • 2018

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continued from page 46

Besides his annual trips to book-
stores, Holtzman used other methods
to add to the collection. “He would
boldly ask authors to make the library
the repository for their personal letters
and manuscripts,” Weissblei said.
“He commissioned English transla-
tions of Hebrew works. In exchange,
he would ask the Hebrew authors for
signed photographs and manuscripts,
which also became part of the collec-
tion at the library.”
Richler adds, “He also commis-
sioned special editions, beautiful
handcrafted and numbered editions,
celebrating specific works. One of each
of these special editions went into the
library’s Holtzman collection.”
Weissblei adds, “Holtzman also pro-
vided financial assistance to writers.
His patronage enabled writers to con-
centrate on writing.”
In 2007, Knesset passed a law
renaming the library as the National
Library of Israel. Dr. Malachi Beit-
Arié, the poet and prolific scholar who
directed the library from 1979 to 1991,
observed that Irwin Holtzman had a
role in the change.
“He knew how to insist,” Beit-Arie
said. “Whenever he visited, he men-
tioned the effort to change the name
of the library from Jewish National
and University Library to the National
Library of Israel.” It took 50 years to
make that change.
According to Weissblei, “He was
passionate about the collection. He
cared about books, about culture,
especially Jewish culture. He was a
Zionist — not that he ever moved to
Israel, but a Zionist, nonetheless.
“He saw the founding of the State of
Israel as a major event in the history of
the Jewish people. He wanted to have
everything published in Jewish and
Hebrew literature — every single book
of prose or poetry — and every trans-

lation into other languages. And he
was insistent on getting first editions
in mint condition.”
Richler notes that Holtzman “espe-
cially liked to have first editions with
the author’s handwritten dedications,
often to him, ‘To Toby,’ but also to
other people.”
Irwin Holtzman died in July 2010.
The Holtzman’s son Jonathan main-
tains the family relationship with the
National Library of Israel. Jonathan is
a local multifamily real estate develop-
er who had led the nearly 100-year-old
company started by his grandfather
and then run by his father but now
heads his own venture, City Club
Apartments.
“We are proud to count
Jonathan Holtzman as a leading part-
ner in the renewal of the National
Library of Israel as we build our
new home adjacent to the Knesset
in Jerusalem,” said Oren Weinberg,
library director. “Through his generos-
ity and vision, the treasures of Israel’s
literary heritage will be preserved and
cultivated for generations to come.
“Irwin Holtzman had tremendous
passion for Israeli literature and played
a significant role in cultivating and
promoting the creation and transla-
tion of contemporary Israeli literary
works,” Weinberg said. “We are grate-
ful he recognized the National Library
of Israel as the proper home for his
world-class collection, where it is pre-
served alongside the largest collection
of textual Judaica ever amassed …”
The Israeli Literature collection at
the National Library of Israel was not
Holtzman’s only collection. He also
collected the works and papers of
Isaac Babel and other Soviet Jewish
writers, especially Boris Pasternak and
Joseph Brodsky. These collections are
now kept at the Hoover Institution at
Stanford University in California. ■