The East Brunswick Public Library will begin lending out Hebrew-language books in August in response to requests by the many Israelis living in the municipality.
Photo by Debra Rubin
Reading material
Anyone wishing to donate Hebrew-language books to the East Brunswick Public Library, located at 2 Jean Walling Civic Center in East Brunswick, should call 732-390-6950. Only works published in 2007 or 2008 are now being accepted.
July 22, 2008
A Hebrew language section is expected to open in August at the East Brunswick Public Library, providing members of the growing Israeli community there with a source of books in their native language.
The move brings to a close a four-year push by Israeli native Ayelet Ben-Zvi to add Hebrew to the library’s foreign language collections, which, she said, has sections of works in Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, Chinese, Farsi, Korean, and Russian.
“I came to America eight years ago and after I had my third child I needed to have some books to read to them,” said Ben-Zvi. “Of course, I read English but there are so many Israelis here, and I wanted books to read to them in Hebrew.”
Ben-Zvi also realized that, like other Israelis, she had books that she had already read that could be given to the library to be used by others.
“Why have them just lying around the house?” she said. “It’s not good for us and it’s not good for the environment.”
Ben-Zvi first enlisted the help of Rabbi Eric Milgrim of Temple B’nai Shalom in East Brunswick and Rebecca Brenowitz, cochair of the Israel Task Force of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County and then member of the East Brunswick Human Relations Committee. They approached the library with the idea of launching a Hebrew section.
Library officials initially rebuffed them because they didn’t feel there were enough native Hebrew speakers to justify such a section.
The library based its decision on the practice of “limited English-proficiency tracking” conducted in the public schools, which, Ben-Zvi said, was not accurate.
When children are enlisted in public school, she explained, they are checked on their English-speaking ability. But, Ben-Zvi said, many Israelis, because they also speak English and did not want their children to go through the testing, did not indicate they were native Hebrew speakers.
Additionally, Ben-Zvi said, some Israeli residents send their children to Solomon Schechter of Raritan Valley — and so are not part of the tracking system — while others simply do not have school-age children.
Undeterred, Ben-Zvi enlisted the help of another Israeli, Liti Haramaty, and they set about marshaling other Israelis in East Brunswick as they continued to press their case.
In the interim, they opened a mini-library at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, but, Ben-Zvi said, because of the distance, it was rarely used.
‘A new wind’
The matter came to a head in March when the Israelis were invited to a board of trustees meeting at the library, where there had been some administrative staff changes.
“Liti said to me, ‘Ayelet, I feel things are starting to change at the library,’” said Ben-Zvi. “There was like a new wind.”
At the meeting, she recalled being surprised at how many Israelis showed up, adding, “We saw some new faces even we didn’t know.”
Some board members “understood right way that it was the library’s job to allow everybody to enjoy books,” she said.
About a month later, the library informed the Israelis they would allow the Hebrew section on a one-year trial basis. Whether it will become permanent will depend on usage, said Ben-Zvi.
Adult services librarian Stephanie Nye told NJJN she is “cataloging and processing the books…. We’ve already made space in our world languages section. We expect to have the books ready in August.”
Because East Brunswick allows anyone working or attending school in the municipality to take books out of its library, Ben-Zvi said, students and teachers at Schechter could also benefit.
Brenowitz said the credit for the new section should go to the Israelis who refused to drop the issue.
“To me it’s unbelievable; it’s incredible,” she said. “It’s what they wanted and the Israelis all got together with great force and were able to convince library officials.”
The collection will start with donated books published in 2007 or 2008. Collections began in May and although only 11 or 12 books have so far been donated, Ben-Zvi said she expects that number to jump after the summer when many Israelis return from visiting friends and family in Israel, bringing new reading material with them.
--TOP--
Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com
