Yesterday, after waking up at 5 am, getting to mass at 7 (boy, lack of sleep really enlightens my French!), and coming home for a snack and a change of clothes, I went– thanks to Kenzi for the heads-up– to the National Library’s 24,000-book giveaway. It was, how shall I say, complete chaos.
Thanks to kindly guards at the Hebrew U Givat Ram campus, I found my way to the National Library with no problems, yashar-yashar-yashar (“straight-straight-straight ahead”). Somebody added, “You’ll know by the crowds.” And crowds there were. As I was crossing the long swaths of green grass (which I totally walked across and for which I felt Smith guilt), I saw various young couples and families camped out on the grass, the occasional cat or baby crawling across, enjoying the sunshine and not-too-hot temperatures. But, as I neared the large library building, I saw what can only be described as flurries of people.
Many were gathered around boxes full of books, scattered here and there on the ground. Others were grouped around tables where books had been dumped out, and which at intervals received more books. And all vigorously flipping through pages and pages trying to decide whether a free book on 32 years of Rhodesian history was worth the shlep home.
Granted, I got there 30 minutes after the event started and I saw plenty of people carrying around recognizable English autobiographies and things like that, but most of what I was seeing could have made an exhibit called, Books Never Checked Out of the Library til Now. Stacks upon stacks of UN treaties, social work case studies, literary tributes to philanthropists’ deceased wives– and so on.
The great majority of books were, naturally, in Hebrew, but there were many in other languages. Though I didn’t find any Arabic books (though they well could have been taken already), and there were many modern English books, I was interested in how many old books in German and Russian I found. Well, I suppose the Russian isn’t that much of a surprise, as there are many Russians in Israel today. But the German books took me a little aback– many of them were grammars for learning other languages, like French, but many of them were novels (for instance, I saw an Aldous Huxley in there somewhere) beautifully printed and bound. They were really objects of art which but for the fact of my limited suitcase space and inability (which will be remedied this coming year at Amherst) to read German, I’d have liked to take.
And I began to wonder where they came from– I would assume from immigrants to Israel in the first half of the twentieth century, since that’s when many of these books were printed. But also, I saw not one Yiddish book, by which I was very surprised. Again, maybe they were taken, or maybe the Library wasn’t giving any away, but I had anticipated seeing some, since Yiddish was such a prevalent language among Jews of Eastern Europe.
At any rate, I myself went away with a book called “Ghana: 1917-1957,” another on Malta, and a third, a long poem from Africa for a friend of mine. I figured I should always brush up on my Ghanaian history, and my Maltese…
– Natalie
The German immigration in the 1930s had a decisive impact on the organization of the Hebrew University. Moreover, many German immigrants who came to Palestine in the 1930s came with some capital and higher education. They may have donated books to the national library. Before Kindle and Ipad and before ordering books on line, the best Jerusalem bookstores were owned by people who came to live in British Mandate Palestine from Germany. One is a used bookstore–Stein’s on King George–still in business though with different owners. I love to coordinate my trips to Israel with the Jerusalem Book Fair–great opportunity to see new publications in Hebrew. I subscribe to a service that sends me a list of the books published in Israel every two months or so. Very, very long list.
Donna, in addition to your perpetual cheerfulness, you are such a prompt poster! I don’t really know how you manage to keep all this info so readily accessible. But thanks! I’ve also heard that there’s a really good bookstore somewhere called Meir’s, I think? I’m guessing also German?