SA Zionist Fed library’s future an open book

For decades, the South African Zionist Federation’s (SAZF) library in Johannesburg has been a quiet treasure trove – shelves stacked with history, politics, religion, and culture, preserving generations of Jewish thought and Zionist heritage. Now, as the library faces downsizing, questions arise about what it means not just to lose books, but part of a community’s collective memory.

As a result of a tenant of the Beyachad complex requiring the entire second floor, the SAZF has been asked to relocate its offices to the first floor, in the area occupied by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) archives. The SAJBD archives, in turn, will relocate to the space presently occupied by the SAZF reference library. This new location offers improved environmental conditions, shielding the archives from natural light and heat. Consequently, the SAZF reference library will need to be downsized significantly to fit the new design and spatial constraints.

For many decades, it served as a lending library at its previous home on De Villiers Street in Johannesburg’s CBD, before relocating to the Beyachad facility in 1994. Today, it functions primarily as a reference library, housing more than a century’s worth of Zionist archival material, books, periodicals, and audiovisual resources. It continues to serve the community for research and historical inquiry.

David Saks, associate director of the SAJBD, said that in its day, the SAZF library was popular and heavily used by the community. “There was constant high activity, it had an audiovisual component, it had at least three librarians and activities,” he said. “It’s a jewel of Jewish history. It has a big focus on the history of Zionism and Israel, but it includes wider topics of Jewish interest and general interest. It accumulated quite a big collection of general history like the history of Rome and Greece and biographies of United States presidents and things like that. It was a lovely library, and it looks like it’s in good condition.”

“The SAZF library holds thousands of books that together, tell the story of Jewish life, history, culture, religion, Zionism, and Israel,” said SAZF spokesperson Rolene Marks. “The collection is a mix. While some titles are widely available, there are also rare, out-of-print, and specialist works that make the library a unique and important resource.”

Marcia Parness, who has been involved with the library for four decades, described it as a treasure trove, and said she had never understood why it wasn’t more popular. “I’ve never been able to understand why the people of Johannesburg don’t support a library, where the Cape Town one is so vibrant. I know that today, people believe that everything is available online, but it isn’t. We have the most incredible, valuable archives and material that are out of print. For example, there are Leon Uris books that are out of print, and you can’t get them anymore.”

Said Marks, “As tenants, we had no choice but to pack and store the collection carefully. This step has also created an opportunity to ask the community how best to reimagine the library’s future so it can better serve scholars, students, and the wider public.”

A team of people is going through every book and document in the library to make sure that nothing is lost with the move.

“The archives go back long before the state of Israel, but those are going to be kept to the best of our ability. The newspaper cuttings are harder to keep as newspapers don’t preserve themselves well,” said Parness, “They have to be kept in optimum condition. We’re going to try and preserve that. Similarly with the library, we will retain as many books as we possibly can.”

Parness said she was absolutely heartbroken to have to go through the library and determine what books were worthy of keeping and preserving for generations to come.

“It’s been my baby for a long time, and it’s hard to see. I remember the vibrant days, when people came in, we had a membership, and it was like a meeting place,” she said.

However, the SAZF said it was going to preserve as many of the books as it could, and get rid of only duplicates in the collection.

“We intend to preserve the collection in its entirety because it represents a valuable communal asset,” said Marks. “We will consider giving away duplicate copies only where appropriate. The overarching goal is to safeguard the books and ensure that they continue to serve the Jewish community and future generations.”

But there are no concrete plans for what exactly will happen to the books, and the SAZF is open to any suggestions. It is working to digitise the documents in its archives, including CVs, press cuttings, and photographs, to allow them be a part of the archives of the World Zionist Organization in Israel so that anyone from around the world can access them.

However, with the state of the library, “Every option is on the table, with the guiding principle that the books remain accessible, respected, and properly cared for. We want the collection not only to be preserved, but to be used and appreciated by the community,” said Marks.

“Ensuring access is at the heart of this process. What that access looks like will be shaped by the outcome of our consultation. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the library has mainly functioned as a reference and study space, but this moment gives us the chance to reinvent it. Our commitment is to find a way to make the library more open, relevant, and accessible than before.”