The library of the Taube Department of Jewish Studies in Wrocław

Marcin Wodzinski, the long-time head of the Taube Department of Jewish Studies in Wrocław, often quips that our department is the fastest growing academic unit in the entire universe. When Jerzy Woronczak established a chair of Jewish studies at the University of Wrocław in 1993 (the first such unit in Wrocław since the Holocaust), he was the sole staff member. Today, after more than 30 years, our team consists of 17 faculty and staff members, who teach students at BA, MA and PhD levels. What Wodziński usually does not mention is that the departmental Library continues to grow almost at the same rate. We dare say that over time it has developed into one of the most important Judaic libraries in Poland, if not east-central Europe.

The story of the library began in early 2000s, when the Chair of Jewish Studies was still a part of the Polish Studies Department. At that time, the library occupied one dingy and windowless room of the Polish Studies building, packed from floor to ceiling with assorted Jewish Studies books and journals. When the Chair was upgraded into the independent Taube Department in 2018, the library followed it to its new premises in the 18th-century building at the Sand Island in the historic centre of Wrocław. Today, the library’s growing collection is stocked in a dedicated storage room and is available to the readers (also those not affiliated with the University) in two reading rooms.

Currently, the library has two types of holdings: books and journals on the one hand, and archival resources, on the other. The collection of books and journals counts approximately 14,000 volumes. The bulk of it consists of post-war academic and popular literature pertaining to Jewish Studies, mostly in Latin script, although the Hebrew-language collection has recently grown significantly. In addition, the library holds several thousand volumes of Hebrew and Yiddish sources, including over 5,000 volumes of Yiddish literary works.

Generous Private and Institutional Donors

The core of our books and journals collection has been built through generous donations. Starting from the mid-2000s, the library received significant gifts from private and institutional donors in Poland and abroad, including the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, the Yiddish Book Centre, philanthropist Alex Lauterbach, historians David Engel, Jonathan Webber, and most recently Moshe Rosman. We also hold the Yiddish collection of the Wałbrzych chapter of TSKŻ (Social-Cultural Association of Polish Jews). This collection, preserved in our library in its entirety, is a one-of-a-kind source which allows to examine the history of the grassroot Yiddish culture in post-Holocaust Poland away from its metropolitan centres of Warsaw or Łódź.

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View into a library room (© Dominika Hull)

The biggest and the most generous donation was made by Ada Rapoport-Albert from University College London. She was one of the foremost experts on Hasidism, Sabbateanism, and Jewish mysticism, with a particular interest in the women’s experience in all these. Ada Rapoport-Albert developed this unique collection into a working library in modern Jewish studies, therefore it reflects her academic and non-academic interests, as well as her professional and personal networks.

A Unique Reading Room

The fact that it is a discrete unit within the library, and that it is in Wrocław and not in the United Kingdom or Israel, further bolsters its uniqueness. We gathered all the books, which consider Rapoport-Albert’s major research interests in a separate reading room. Today, this Reading Room is the only reading room in Poland dedicated almost exclusively to Jewish mystical traditions; perhaps the only in east-central Europe altogether.

In addition to books and journals, we hold three major archival collections in our library. Two of them document the history of two crucial institutions for the postwar Jewish life in the region: the regional Committee of Polish Jews, and the Wrocław chapter of The Social and Cultural Association of Jews in Poland. The third bulk of materials are Ada Rapoport-Albert’s archival collection – manuscripts, drafts, unpublished lectures, index cards, ephemera, and more. We are currently in the process of cataloguing the collection and making it available.

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Meeting in the library (© Natalia Lindner)

Since 2017, the library has been curated by dr Monika Jaremków, a graduate of the Institute of Library Science of the University of Wrocław, and the Centre for Jewish Culture and Languages. She is an expert in Jewish book culture, and her forthcoming book examines the history of modern translation of Jewish books into Polish. While she remains the only librarian employed on a full-time basis, she has fundraised for resources necessary to create a team of interns and part-time student workers. Currently, our students and interns from the Librarianship Department, work on processing, inventorying, and shelving the books. Doing so gives them an opportunity to get to know our collections, learn new skills, and practice their languages when handling Hebrew and Yiddish items.

The library is open 5 days a week and it serves not only our students and our faculty, but also the wider academic community in Wrocław, and Jewish studies scholars in Poland and from abroad. The main reading room hosts a monthly book club, as well as occasional book launches, lectures, and more.

Monika Jaremków is the Librarian at the Taube Department

Wojciech Tworek is an Assistant Professor at the Taube Department

Title image: Home of the Taube Department since 2018 (© Grzegorz Polak)