Dan Rabinowitz - The lost library : the legacy of Vilnas Strashun library in the aftermath of the Holocaust

The Lost Library

The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry

Jehuda Reinharz, General Editor
ChaeRan Y. Freeze, Associate Editor
Sylvia Fuks Fried, Associate Editor
Eugene R. Sheppard, Associate Editor

The Tauber Institute Series is dedicated to publishing compelling and innovative approaches to the study of modern European Jewish history, thought, culture, and society. The series features scholarly works related to the Enlightenment, modern Judaism and the struggle for emancipation, the rise of nationalism and the spread of antisemitism, the Holocaust and its aftermath, as well as the contemporary Jewish experience. The series is published under the auspices of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewryestablished by a gift to Brandeis University from Dr. Laszlo N. Tauberand is supported, in part, by the Tauber Foundation and the Valya and Robert Shapiro Endowment.

For the complete list of books that are available in this series, please see www.upne.com

Dan Rabinowitz

The Lost Library: The Legacy of Vilnas Strashun Library in the Aftermath of the Holocaust

Jehuda Reinharz and Yaacov Shavit

The Road to September 1939: Polish Jews, Zionists, and the Yishuv on the Eve of World War II

Adi Gordon

Toward Nationalisms End: An Intellectual Biography of Hans Kohn

Noam Zadoff

Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back

*Monika Schwarz-Friesel and Jehuda Reinharz

Inside the Antisemitic Mind: The Language of Jew-Hatred in Contemporary Germany

Elana Shapira

Style and Seduction: Jewish Patrons, Architecture, and Design in Fin de Sicle Vienna

ChaeRan Y. Freeze, Sylvia Fuks Fried, and Eugene R. Sheppard, editors

The Individual in History: Essays in Honor of Jehuda Reinharz

Immanuel Etkes

Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady: The Origins of Chabad Hasidism

*A Sarnat Library Book

A Sarnat Library Book

The Lost Library

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY PRESS
An imprint of University Press of New England
www.upne.com
2019 Brandeis University
All rights reserved

For permission to reproduce any of the material in this book, contact Permissions, University Press of New England, One Court Street, Suite 250, Lebanon NH 03766; or visit www.upne.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

NAMES: Rabinowitz, Dan, 1975 author.

TITLE: The lost library: the legacy of Vilnas Strashun library in the aftermath of the Holocaust / Dan Rabinowitz.

DESCRIPTION: Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, an imprint of University Press of New England, [2019] | Series: The Tauber Institute series for the study of European Jewry | A Sarnat Library book | Includes bibliographical references and index.

IDENTIFIERS: LCCN 2018023866 (print) | LCCN 2018026226 (ebook) | ISBN 9781512603101 (epub) | ISBN 9781512603088 (cloth: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781512603095 (pbk.)

SUBJECTS: LCSH: Strashun Library. | Jewish librariesLithuaniaVilniusHistory. | LibrariesDestruction and pillageLithuaniaVilniusHistory20th century. | Strashun, Mathias, 1885Library.

CLASSIFICATION: LCC Z675.J4 (ebook) | LCC Z675.J4 R35 2019 (print) | DDC 027.04793dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018023866

My father-in-law, MELVIN RISHE,
a philanthropist, scholar, and community leader, whose love for his family knew no bounds

SARA LANDESMAN,
who fled Europe with the Mir Yeshiva and made her home in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she welcomed all in need with open arms and grace

My grandfather, ELIEZER RABINOWITZ,
who devoted his life to Jewish education, first in Vilna as head of the Horev school system and then in the United States at Ner Israel Rabbinical College

Acknowledgments

I wish to express my gratitude to all those who made this book possible: To my wonderful editor Sylvia Fuks Fried, at the Tauber Institute, for her unstinting support, even when the direction and timeline of the book changed. Phyllis Deutsch, whose forbearance and feedback were critical, and Susan Abel. Ryan Cole, for his editorial assistance and advice, and my copyeditor, Elizabeth Forsaith. To the many who provided information, materials, assistance with translations, and archival resources: Zachary Baker, Gunner Berg, Menachem Butler, Kobi Fisher, Louise Fisher at the Israel State Archives, David Fishman, Elisabeth Gallas, Mark Glickman, Ettie Goldwasser, Gershom Gorenberg, Dana Herman, Sharon Horowitz at the Library of Congress, Dovid Katz, Cecile Kuznitz, Fruma Mohrer, Ruth Murphy, Allan Nadler, Carl Rheins, Brad Sabin-Hill, Shaul Seidler-Feller, Billi Shilo, Lyudmila Sholokhova, Frida Shor, Nancy Sinkoff, Daniel Sperber, Shimon Steinmentz, Marek Webb, and Mordechai Zalkin. Eliezer Brodt has been a good friend and unimaginable resource. His contributions are so substantial that they would otherwise require mention on nearly every page. One of the most unexpected and enjoyable aspects of this project was meeting Lara Lempertien, the director of the Lithuanian National Librarys Judaica Research Center; she is a seemingly endless font of information related to Mattityahu, and a scholar and friend. Aaron Taub, who invited me to the Association of Jewish Librarians conference. Eli Genauer, who read and reread the manuscript closely. Zalman Alpert, Hillel Broder, Shawn Fishman, ChaeRan Freeze, Eliezer Katzman, Lisa Leff, Sid Leiman, Matthew Solomson, Rabbi Yehezkel Weinfeld, and the anonymous reader who read the manuscript and provided feedback. The institutions that generously opened their archives: the Lithuanian State Historical Archives and its archivist Galina Baranova; the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; the National Archives in College Park, Maryland; the Bar-Ilan University Archive of Religious Zionism; the Stanford University Archives; the American Jewish Historical Society Archives; Mossad Harav Kook; the Israel State Archives; and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. To my two long-standing book dealers, Chaim Dzailowsky and Joshua Peirce. My friends Sam G., Sam M., Dave, Edwin, Miriam, Tevi, Reuven, Yuni Aton, Ariel, Yaak, and Rachel, who patiently listened to me over the past year. The anonymous donor who permitted me to travel to various archives and visit Vilna and experience firsthand its charm and history. Finally, to my wife and children for their unstinting support throughout the project, even during long periods of hibernation in the basement office and extended international trips; you are what inspires me, and each of you, in your own special way, is evidence that the legacy of our families Eastern European preWorld War II heritage will be carried on to the next generations.

ISAAC CANPANTON (13601463), Darkhei ha-Talmud

Introduction

THE LIBRARY AT THE HEART OF THIS STORYits books, fate, and symbolismwas the first modern Jewish public library. The Strashun Library began its life deep in Eastern Europe, in Vilna, in what is today the Baltic state of Lithuania, and ranked among the greatest intellectual institutions in all of Jewish Europe. Although a Jewish library, its holdings went well beyond biblical and rabbinic books, encompassing nearly all Jewish and secular genres, in a dozen languages. During World War II, over 90 percent of all Baltic Jews perished, but most of the library survived in a manner that defies credence. A treacherous journey that began in war-torn Vilna was fraught with looting, theft, destruction, efforts to save the books at the risk of life and limb, the fabrication of questionable historical narratives, the subsequent obfuscation of the librarys provenance, and international litigation and diplomacy.