The Aaron Garber
Library, which
closed its doors at
the end of August
2014,
was Northern
Ohio's largest
Judaica and Hebraica
library. Its
holdings
spanned the vast
range of Jewish
knowledge with more
than 40,000 volumes,
plus periodicals,
CDs, tapes, music
and software in
English, Hebrew and
Yiddish. They were
cataloged online as
an affiliate of the
CWRU library and
were available
through OhioLINK.
The library began in
1924 as the library
of the Bureau of
Jewish Education. In
1939 the Bureau named
it to honor the
memory of one of its
leaders,
Aaron Garber (1877 -
1938), a founder and
president of the
Cleveland Hebrew
Schools.
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In 1976 it moved
from the Friedland
Center, the Bureau's
building on South
Taylor Road, to
become the library
of the College of
Jewish Studies in
its new building on
Shaker Boulevard. A
few years ago, when the
College's degree programs
ended, and the staff
moved to CWRU, use
of the collection
dropped sharply.
The Agnon School
expanded to use the
entire building. The
dispersal of the
library's collection
was rushed to
facilitate the
repurposing of its
space. Some assets,
such as theses, were
entrusted to the
Jewish Archives at
WRHS. In 2015 The
Agnon School became
the Joseph and
Florence Mandel
Jewish Day School. |