New shelving for Yiddish books in the YUNG YiDiSH Library & Cultural Centre in Tel Aviv
Over the years, with our ever-growing book collection, we have run out of shelving space. We would like to build new shelving to display a representative sample of 11,000 of our unique, varied collection comprising of 60,000 Yiddish books. This year we have received large donations from individuals and decommissioned libraries. For now, the books are safe-guarded and protected, packaged and stacked, but the need to build new shelving has become urgent.
We want to make our unique collection available to Yiddish cultural enthusiasts, Israeli youngsters, international visitors and contemporary Haredi speakers alike. Several times a week we hold educational events, for youngsters and Israeli and international visitor groups, showcasing these treasures of Yiddish culture. We have about 5000 visitors every year.
The YUNG YiDiSH Library and Cultural Centre in Tel Aviv is an internationally known non-profit organisation keeping alive the Yiddish language and culture for the next generations in Israel. We have been collecting Yiddish books from members of the public and from decommissioned libraries and making them available on open shelves to Yiddish-enthusiasts for over a quarter of a century. Currently, we are the only organisation in Israel who offers this service. Our volunteers receive a call, make an appointment, travel to the donors home, meet people, receive books, transport, shlep, catalogue, preserve and protect and make available thousands of books every year.
We have detailed plans to remodel our ample 400m2-space. Making full use of the 4.5-metre internal height of our location at the Central Bus station in Tel Aviv, we intend to build 36 floor-to-ceiling wooden bookcases all around our walls, with open space for exhibits at eye-level. Some of the smaller units will have glass cases to showcase our rarer, more valuable, more fragile books.
We will buy the materials. Carpenters and volunteers will build purpose-built shelving. We will also upgrade our climatization system to provide better protection of our large collection. Appropriate shelf lighting will be fixed to illuminate our library as well as the exhibits.
We have already started the preparatory work at YUNG YiDiSH. We will be able to start the building process in February and hope to finish it before Peysakh.
Our 60,000-strong collection is unique in Israel, comprising of fictional books including countless novels, drama and poetry, as well as non-fiction books, political literature, manifesti, almanachs, literary magazines and anthologies, encyclopedias and research literature, grammars and dictionaries. We have bound volumes of newspapers and magazines, including full sets of literary magazines, biographies and autobiographies, sheet music and songs, LP Records, Holocaust literature and testimonies, children books and study books, popular science books, teaching material, translations of world literature, Hassidic literature, religious books, art books, postcards, paintings and some Yiddish maps.
Our books have been published all around a world - from Vilna to Paris, from New York to Johannesburg, from Minsk to Mexico, from Warsaw to Buenos Aires, etc. A few of our books are very old and rare. All our books come with their own histories, which they sometimes share with us through stamps and inscriptions. Alongside all the books, we have been entrusted with several personal archives including unpublished novel manuscripts, handwritten song collections, music sheets, theatre plays, jokes.
The unique nature of our collection has permitted us to create numerous themed book exhibits. We continue to host book launches, art exhibitions, public lectures. For years, we have been running weekly Yiddish language classes, and weekly Yiddish conversation meetings. We run a full program of Yiddish cultural events, song evenings, cabarets, theatre performances, with artists from Israel and all over the world. This year for the first time we will run a week-long contemporary spoken Yiddish immersion course in our library premises.
This is how many events we put on this year. Classes, exhibits, workshops and of course many Yiddish concerts featuring new compositions, as well as traditional klezmer and cabarets with artists of renown and budding talents from Israel and abroad.
This year, YUNG YiDiSH has attracted more than 14000 people and we are still going strong. Daily. You can read more details about our events here.
Volunteers of all walks of life put in lots of working hours to make YUNG YiDiSH possible. This dedication is what makes our work possible. It's our heart beat.
Many of our volunteering crew members perform for free to keep the heart beat going.
We are ready to take of our pockets too when we can.
This year we have clocked up
an astonishing 1650 volunteer hours.
But we cannot make it on our own and we ask you to join.
With all the volunteer work we do, this is the number of days a year YUNG YiDiSH would be able to stay open if we relied only on institutional support. This takes the form of financial support for specific concerts, classes or cultural events. We thank the Yiddish Comittee at the Ministry of Culture or Beth Shalom Aleikhem in Israel and some other institutions like the Mental Insight Foundation.
This means that without additional income from friends and supporters YUNG YiDiSH cannot live, let alone thrive.
You give us wood for a shelf to hold 36 books. Wood that existed as a living being for decades. Your contribution brings nature into our library. With sturdy wooden shelving, our library will last for generations.
You give us a pot of varnish like black honey to protect our book cases from wear and tear. Remember we are an open access library, our books are taken off and put back on the shelves all the time! Your contribution will make our bookcases last for many generations.
You give us a cut-to-measure, varnished, fitted and polished wooden shelf ready to hold 36 Yiddish books telling their stories and histories for the next generations
Your contribution will keep the shining light of Yiddish culture alive by contributing state-of-the-art lighting for one of our bookcases.
You give us a 4.5m-long wooden beam to hold up our shelves. You reach to the sky and stand firm!
You give us a pair of 4.5-m long wooden beams to support 18 shelves. Our books are relying on you!
Pushet, simple! You give us a 2.5m tall made-to-measure, varnished, fitted, wooden bookcase. We need 9 of these and we can start building our dream library. Will put your name or the name of your choice on the bookcase to honour your contribution!
You give us a 4.5m tall made-to-measure, varnished, fitted, wooden bookcase. We need 27 of these and we can start building our dream library. Your contribution will be named for you (or the name of your choice) so that Yiddish culture stays alive dor vador.
Your generous contribution will allow us to create a permanent exhibit space. This will provide educational content about Yiddish culture for the next generations. The exhibit space will be named after you or the name of your choice, to mark your generosity.
Your contribution will allow for all the necessary changes to make our library truly interactive and state-of-the-art, ready for the current and subsequent generations. We will upgrade our catalogue, make it available online for readers from all over the world. We will digitize part of our collection. We will fully upgrade our climatization system. You give the books and the visitors the 21st-century experience and the fresh air they all need. Your contribution will not only ensure that our library will stand testimony for Yiddish culture for generations to come but also make it accessible to today's youth and to a global audience. Your contribution will be commemorated on a plaque by the entrance to YUNG YiDiSH!
Your contribution will allow for all the necessary changes to make our library truly interactive and state-of-the-art, ready for the current and subsequent generations. We will upgrade our catalogue, make it available online for readers from all over the world. We will digitize part of our collection. We will fully upgrade our climatization system. You give the books and the visitors the 21st-century experience and the fresh air they all need. Your contribution will not only ensure that our library will stand testimony for Yiddish culture for generations to come but also make it accessible to today's youth and to a global audience. Your contribution will be commemorated on a plaque by the entrance to YUNG YiDiSH!
YUNG YiDiSH Tel Aviv
יונג יידיש תל אביב
New Central Bus Station
תחנה מרכזית חדשה
Levinsky 108 Fifth Floor 5 Studio 5008
לוינסקי 108 קומה 5 סטודיו 5008
Tel Aviv 66990 תל אביב
03-6874433
YUNG YiDiSH Jerusalem
יונג יידיש ירושלים
Yermiyahu 52 רחוב ירמיהו
Jerusalem ירושלים
02-5001395
Email: yung@yiddish.co.il
SHARE THIS PAGE!