Community Library
The library has existed in this form since 1943 and contains many private bequests as well as contemporary literature on Iwrit.
Lending
Opening hours of the community library:
Mon 10am-1pm
Wed 2-5pm
As well as every 1st Sunday of the month from 2 to 5 pm.
The library is closed on Jewish holidays and sometimes during school holidays.
You are welcome to use the “pick-up lending” service: Upon your order at the Universitätsbibliothek, the requested books will be made available for pick-up at the UB Religion at Nadelberg 10. The books will also be returned to the UB Religion.
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More about the history and holdings of the community library
The community library has existed for almost a century and, with its valuable holdings, is one of the last libraries of its kind in the German-speaking world to have survived the Holocaust unscathed. It represents a unique cultural asset with a one-of-a-kind character that urgently needs to be preserved.
The historical core of the collection comprises almost 4,000 books from the 16th to the 19th century. It contains rabbinic literature printed in the old centers of Jewish learning – including Vilnius, Lviv and Prague. In addition to modern religious literature, there are also several centuries-old leather-bound folios, Talmud and Bible editions, commentaries, prayer books and even manuscripts, including one with Kabbalistic content. The historically valuable holdings also include a collection of gray literature, pamphlets, magazines and leaflets. This dates in part from the time of the Basel Zionist Congresses, but in part it goes back even further. However, the library also has rarities of more recent vintage, for example an edition of the German version of the Babylonian Talmud published by Lazarus Goldschmidt in 1930-1936. The cultural-historical value of the collection cannot be overestimated.