Our Library
Books and other materials on Jewish culture and history
Our library contains around 80,000 items on Jewish history, culture, art, religion and philosophy. Some 30,000 volumes are freely accessible. The remaining materials, including about 15,000 rare volumes published before 1950 and audiovisual materials, can be accessed on request.
You can search our holdings using our library catalog (OPAC) and request items for the reading room (further information and opening hours on our website.)
Where
W. M. Blumenthal Academy, Library
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
Postal address: Lindenstraße 9-14, 10969 Berlin
Rara: Valuable Holdings, Compilations and Collections
Our library includes items from all areas of Jewish culture and history, including first editions by Jewish authors and Hebrew manuscripts, as well as address books, cookbooks and children’s books.
The collections on Hebrew printing in Berlin and the Soncino Society of Friends of the Jewish Book collection cover a large time frame, from the beginnings of the Haskalah in the eighteenth century to Yiddish book culture and bibliophile book art in the Weimar Republic. The William L. Gross collection forms the foundation of our holdings on Jewish art. We have been able to expand and supplement these holdings with relevant scholarly literature thanks to support from the German Research Foundation (DFG).
A significant part of the Rara holdings consists of collections of magazines, books and brochures from Jewish communities and organizations. These never appeared in book stores and are often as fragile as they are rare. Examples include publications from the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, Zionist writings, private prints of sermons and publications that appeared after 1933. Our extensive holdings of bible editions and prayer books from all strands of Judaism are largely thanks to private gifts.
Selected works are being digitized on an ongoing basis and are available in the online catalog.
Entrance to the library with reading room; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Roman März
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Contact
Monika Sommerer
T +49 (0)30 259 93 564
m.sommerer@jmberlin.de
- Address
Jewish Museum Berlin
Lindenstraße 9–14
10969 Berlin
How can I conduct research using the museum’s archive, collections, and library?
Our Reading Room is open to the public. You can also research using our library’s holdings and some of our collection’s holdings online. To view additional holdings, please contact the responsible curators.
Can I borrow books from the library?
We do not lend books. Our holdings can only be viewed in the Reading Room.
I would like to depict or borrow an object from your collections. Who should I contact?
Your contacts for photo permissions are Valeska Wolfgram and Birgit Maurer-Porat (T +49 (0)30 259 93 433, email: fotodoku@jmberlin.de). Please consider that it may take between four to six weeks Please note that the processing time for requests can take between 4 and 6 weeks. We will be happy to provide you with further information on fees and reproduction conditions on request.
How can I donate objects, photographs, and documents to the museum?
Interested in Contributing to Our Collections?
Do you own materials related to Jewish culture and history in Germany that could be of interest to us? We would be delighted to hear from you!
The Library of the Jewish Museum Berlin
- Landing Page
- Current page: Our Library: Books, films, and more about Jewish art, culture, and history
- Library Catalog (OPAC)
- Our Collections: collection fields at a glance
- Information for Visitors
- Reading Room: Opening hours, catalogs, databases, requesting archive material
- Registration Form: Register to view rare holdings from our library and documents from our archive
- Terms of Use: Requirements for visitors to the archive and library of the Jewish Museum Berlin
- Our Library’s Classification Scheme: The focuses and thematic areas according to which our collection is organized and grouped
- List of Fees: Prices and rates for services at the reading room of our library and archive
- Collections and Projects
- Collections on Jewish Art and Culture: Volumes printed by the Soncino Society, the publications of the Centralverein, Hebrew Printing, and special collections on Jewish art and visual culture
- The Artur Brauner Collection: Twenty-one films by the successful film producer
- Digitizing Book Holdings: Publications of the Soncino Society of Friends of the Jewish Book, 2016
- Enlarging and Indexing Our Holdings in Jewish Art: DFG Project on visual and material culture of Judaism, 2013–2018
- Digital Content
- Highlights from the Library Collection: A medieval manuscript, a cookbook from 1900, an elaborate Hebrew children’s book and other treasures
- Digital Books: A complete list of our digitized books, in German
- Rare Digital Books: Curated selection of valuable digitized material from our holdings
- Story Time in Our Library: Why Noah Chose the Dove by Isaac Bashevis Singer, 2023
- “Hörmahl:” A Feast for the Ears: Podcast series about Rahel Varnhagen, Lina Morgenstern and other women writers, 2021–2022, in German
- See also
- Judaica Portal: Online database of Judaica holdings at various institutions, including our library’s holdings
- Periodicals in the ZDB: Research tool for magazines, newspapers, and databases in German and Austrian libraries
- Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (DDB): Our digitized publications accessible via the DDB
- AG Jüdische Sammlungen: Website of the Jewish Collections working group, in German
- Library Holdings: Search engine for our online collections, in German
- Literature
- Literature for Children and Young Adults
- Digital Archive of Jewish Authors in Berlin 1933–1945: cooperation (in German)
