New York – The New York Public Library’s landmark Fifth Avenue building is celebrating its 100th birthday with a party and an exhibit featuring highlights of its collection.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street opened on May 23, 1911, and is one of the city’s most recognizable structures.
The exhibit celebrating the library’s holdings includes a copy of the Declaration of Independence handwritten by Thomas Jefferson.
While it preserves the past, the library has also embraced the 21st century by putting its catalog and images from its collection online.
The library has celebrated its birthday with a full schedule of events over the weekend and will host a centennial gala Monday night.
Its one of the real gems of New york yet I’ve discovered that a large percentage of the heimeshe community have never visited the main branch of the library system and utilized the incredible resources if offers. There is no reason under halacha why we shouldn’t use this great library since our taxes help support it.
(Reply to #1 ): It’s only a gem if you appreciate literacy, knowledge, accessing information, the beauty and power of books, etc. If you’re raised to be afraid of all that…….
Their Judaica section, open to the public, has one of the greatest collection of s’forim in the city.
Closed Shabbos.
Absolutely worth a trip. You will never want to leave once you find out all the treasures they have for you to just sit there and look at to your heart’s delight.
(Reply to #3): I never said I was smarter. I am just less afraid than you. When I read a book by an empty minded athlete, I come to my OWN conclusions. Maybe it teaches me about the vacuous nature of some peoples’ lives. Maybe not. But I get the chance to ponder and reflect and roll it over in my mind and feel my feelings at any given point…. You see, #3, they’re MY feelings. MY thoughts. And I’m not afraid of them. By the way, I personally love non-fiction. Reading how Sharansky defied his captors, or how the Mossad captured Eichmann – nothing like it!!!!
Sometimes older libraries have unique and rare copies of seforim. I don’t see what would be wrong with going there and checking it out. Sometimes they also have private reading rooms that allow you to have peace and quiet when learning.
True, with cheaper printing and the internet one can get many seforim either for free or very cheaply, but some things you still have to find in book form.