Paris Yiddish Center- Medem Library

Dear friends,

On behalf of all the staff and members of Paris Yiddish Center – Medem Library, we are pleased to inform you that we shall be acquiring new premises in the 10^th Arrondissement in Paris, within walking distance from the République subway stop.

Some background information

Paris Yiddish Center – Medem Library was born from the merger of the Medem Library with AEDCY (Association pour l'étude et la diffusion de la culture Yiddish). It was formed in  2002  and was housed from the start in the premises located 18, passage Saint-Pierre Amelot, in the 11^th Arrondissement in Paris.

The move to new premises

All of us knew from the inception that Paris Yiddish Center – Medem Library would sooner or later outgrow the facilities of Passage Saint Pierre Amelot. Still, the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah had willingly supported the decision to move into the facilities for the following reasons :

— At the time, finding a safe home for the priceless collections of Bibliothèque Medem was a pressing issue. The existing premises of rue René Boulanger were not in compliance with security standards.  

— Paris Yiddish center - Medem Library needed a decent base, if it was to thrive and put forth  contributions of any consequence to Yiddish culture in Europe.

The development of Paris Yiddish Center – Medem Library

Paris Yiddish Center – Medem Library’s endeavour to bolster Yiddish culture has come to fruition and made a name for it as an acknowledged cultural center :  

1. Protection of the Jewish heritage : the Medem Library takes pride in its success in protecting the Jewish heritage and granting access to a broad range of printed material. Its 30 000 books and 7 500 musical recordings made it  the largest Yiddish library in Europe. Its 10 000 books in French, English, German, Polish and Hebrew also earned it a prime position among Jewish libraries in Paris.  Its staff laboured to digitalize the library catalog in close cooperation with the European network of Judaica and Hebraica libraries and with the Rachel Catalog.

2. A Center for Yiddish Language Instruction and cultural events : Paris Yiddish Center-Medem Library boasts 25 000 visitors per annum, which makes it the largest Yiddish Culture Center in Europe, both in terms of Language Instruction and in terms of Yiddish cultural events.

3. A Publisher : the Medem Library publishing company has produced several internationally acknowledged Yiddish dictionaries , and a variety of literary material as well.

Why move ?

As we worked on developing the range of activities carried out by Paris Yiddish Center, we kept an eye on opportunities to relocate on a permanent basis in suitable premises.

The premises we are currently using certainly have advantages but have two downsides as well :

1. The total area (300 square meters) tends to stymie the variety and magnitude of activities offered  by  Maison de la culture yiddish. One dedicated classroom and one multi purpose room (that can be divided into two classrooms) can only house a limited number of courses, classes and cultural activities. Children and teenagers activities would also require more space.

2. The reading room of the Medem Library is only  30 square meters large. It is undersized : it sits a very limited number of people and studying in that room is close to impossible.  

3. The storage and shelf space allocated to the books of Bibliothèque Medem is only 95 square meters large and it is also undersized. Additional space has to be rented out from private storage companies.

4. The staff (6) and voluntary workers (around twenty) have to make do with only one office the surface of which is … ten square meters.

The second downside of the current premises is that they are leased. We feel we owe it to both the organisation and the collections of Bibliothèque Medem to find a safe haven away from real estate circumstance (termination of lease, rent increases).

The new premises

We visited about fifty different locations in the last five years and have settled for premises which we feel would ideally suit the purposes and goals of Maison de la culture yiddish-Bibliothèque Medem. The total surface is 650 square meters (Click and view masterplan of premises), which is more that twice the surface that we operate in today. The premises will feature :

1. Three class rooms and one multi purpose room with a significantly better and more versatile design than the room we use today.  

2. A 50 square meter reading room for the Medem Library;

3. Four offices for our staff and one lounge for our teachers;

4. 250 square meters worth of book storage space  for the collections of the Medem Library. The space will be large enough to operate wheel-fitted shelving which will double the total capacity.

 Direct access from the street into ground floor facilities is one of the loveliest features of the premises currently used. The new premises offer the same : all of the ground floor rooms, totalling 400 square meter will be opened to visitors. The basement will be used for storage and will not be opened to visitors. Books will be sent up to the ground floor for visitors to read in a dedicated dumbwaiter-type elevator.  This obviously means no space will be wasted in elevators or staircases for visitors to use.

In the coming weeks

We have signed together with the owner a committal document whereby the owner may not offer the property to any other potential buyer for an agreed period of time.  This time will be used to initiate various procedures with the authorities, banks and partners (change of occupancy of facilities, permission to grant access to visitors, mortgage arrangements, financing of acquisition).

We are in the process of presenting our partners and local government authorities with the project (Ministère de la Culture, Mairie de Paris, Conseil régional d'Ile de France, Fondation pour la mémoire de la Shoah, Fondation du judaïsme français, Fondation Rothschild, Fonds social juif unifié, etc.) in view of completing the financial particulars of our projected acquisition (cost of the property, cost of rehabilitation and new features).

 We shall be keeping you abreast of what progress is made. In the not-too-distant future, we shall be approaching our generous friends and sponsors for donations and hopefully gathering all the resources that our project will require.

We wish you meanwhile a freylekhn Peysekh.

Useful links
masterplan of facilities
yiddishweb, official website of Paris Yiddish Center - Medem Library
rachelnet.org, the library catalog of the Medem Library and other members of the Judaica and Hebraica library networks.