“Make your books your companions; let your cases and shelves be your pleasure-grounds and orchards. Bask in their paradise, gather their fruit, pluck their roses, take their spices . . .” 
                                                                                                                                                      Judah Ibn Tibbon, Tzavaah, 1190

We are very fortunate at Central Synagogue to have a gem of a library for our use and our enjoyment. The sanctuary was built after 1945 and, inasmuch as the library is located off the upper rotunda, we can surmise that the room that ultimately became the library was built at that time. One story places the original library in the coat room! In a desire to find out about the library from someone who may have known about its origins, a wonderful source of Central’s history was consulted: Lenore Sandel. One summer in the early 1950’s, Rabbi Gittelsohn, Central’s first rabbi, suggested to Lenore that as a summer project she put the books and library in order. According to Lenore, all that summer she, her husband, and her daughter ate at the kitchen table because the dining room table was piled high with books in process. She contacted the Jewish Publication Society for information and learned that there is a specific classificataion system for Jewish libraries. Soon a library committee was put together for the purposes of organization and to classify the collection. Some of the original committee members were Lauretta Sack, Emita Levy, and Rose Werne (later Hornung). It was Maurice Blau and his family who honored his wife Helen with a donation in her memory, and the library was named for her. There is a plaque on the wall with names of past and current contributors who gave further donations for shelves of books, or dedicated books in honor of or in memory of a loved one. According to Lenore, congregant Bernard Postal, an author and world traveler who worked for the Jewish Welfare Board, was very generous with his donations of books, and his name can be seen in many of the books. There was then, and continues to be, an accession log in which every book acquired is listed and numbered. The original accession book was actually an accounting ledger that was later given up for a book meant for that purpose and acquired from a library supply company. Over the past fifty years, 7500 books have been part of our library. We’ve come a long way from the kitchen table!