The Congregation Adass Yisroel and the associated Berlin Rabbinical Seminary featured large library stocks with more than 30.000 volumes until the 30ies of the 20th Century. In the course of prosecution, disfranchisement and expropriation of Adass Yisroel these stocks were depredated by the Nazis. Until today the bulk of those former mediums is to be regarded as lost, destroyed or rather untraceable. On this account the actual library of Adass Yisroel understands itself not as a “reopening” of the historic library but as a new opening. Currently the library counts about 5000 mediums.
Major task of the specialized library is the collection, indexing and allocation of written records of Adass Yisroel and the orthodox Judaism in Germany. Deduced from this the focus of the collection is on Judaica, as well as the history of Judaism in general and in the Europe of the 20th Century in particular.
The available offer of information includes fiction written in German, Russian, Hebrew, English and other languages, literature for children and young people, biographies as well as an interesting selection of audio-visual medias. All members of Adass Yisroel are entitled for the use of the library.
The whole library stocks are captured in an electronic catalogue; both in form (RAK) and content (SWD). All library users have access to this catalogue. At the shelf the library stocks are arranged and positioned according to an in-house systematic.
Donations of books are received with good grace, after a previous accord.
Combined with the archive the library constitutes the Centre of Information and Documentation of our Community.
