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.

Photo - Arnold Berger July 2013

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, use of the collection dropped sharply.

Some of the library's holdings will move to the Case Western Reserve University library. Those on education will go to the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland. The remainder will be offered to synagogue and day school libraries. The beautiful space in what is now known as the Siegal - Agnon Building will begin a new life as the library for Agnon School students.