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People of the Book
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New Jewish library opens in Oak Park.
STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER open book, it was all worth enticing colorful interior it. Anyone who wants a with cozy shelves and Torah education is welcome sitting areas is designed to to come in and borrow a be a welcoming space for book.” children, but the library also On Feb. 13, the Detroit features adult books from Jewish Library, located inside topics that range from Torah the Dovid ben Nuchim commentary to history to building, 14800 W. Lincoln, cookbooks to inspirational opened to nearly 500 people self-help books with an in its first hours of operation, Orthodox twist. Expecting with some coming back that the books will get a lot later in the week to check of love and use, all have been
Oak Park has a new Congregation Dovid ben out even more books. Due carefully double bound for place for Detroit’s Nuchim opened the library to COVID precautions, only durability. entire Jewish to instill a love of reading 10 patrons at a time entered The library is open three community to curl up with and Jewish learning for all to browse the shelves and days per week: Sunday a book and a mask, or to Jews. wore masks throughout their 1:30-4 p.m., Tuesday 5:30-7 borrow a few reads to enjoy “We believe in educating visit. As visitors — mostly p.m. and Friday 1:30-2:45 from the social distance of children to be proud of mothers with children — p.m. Families pay an annual one’s home. their Jewish background waited their turn, they kept membership fee of $35 to
Realizing the need for a and history and a lot of that warm and socially distant join and can take out two library that caters not only to can happen through books,” in the synagogue’s spacious books per family member Oak Park’s Orthodox Jewish Kostelitz said. banquet hall. per visit. Books can be population but “In today’s world, kids are The 900 square-foot loaned for a week with an to any local so in tune with technology, Detroit Jewish Library opportunity to renew for Jewish person in but not enough are reading contains a growing collection an additional week over the area seeking books. Creating this library of almost 4,000 brand-new the phone. Patrons receive knowledge and has been a lot of work, but books. The project cost their own library card with a community, when we opened and saw $200,000 and was made barcode and patron number Rabbi Ari Kostelitz Rabbi Ari Kostelitz of kids sitting on the new colorful furniture with an possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor. The just as they would from a public library.
COURTESY OF THE DETROIT JEWISH LIBRARY
POSITIVE RESPONSE
“The number of people who visited the library on our first day shows there is a great need to have a library where traditional Jews can bring their children to take out appropriate books that reflect a traditional way of life,” Kostelitz said. “While our collection is geared toward traditional Judaism, anyone can come and visit the library.”
Ita Leah Cohen is one of the librarians who has been working on the project. For nearly five months, she has put her computer and accounting skills to use building the collection, barcoding the books, entering them into the library’s database and organizing them on the shelves.
“When Rabbi Kostelitz has a vision, it happens yesterday,” Cohen said.
For 15 years, she and her husband, Rabbi Boruch Cohen, lived in Birmingham where they ran from their home the Birmingham Jewish Connection, a Jewish outreach center, and where he was a pulpit rabbi for the Birmingham Bloomfield Chai Center. During that last year, they rented a space in Birmingham and created another Jewish outreach center, 36 Mystics, that held a small Judaica gift shop and cafe. When 36 Mystics closed, they moved to Oak Park shortly before the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 to live closer to their grown children and grandchildren and were immediately embraced by the close-knit Jewish community.
“From the moment this library opened, all you hear are expressions of appreciation that it’s here,” she said.
Hy Safran, who lives in the area, said the library’s opening shows the vibrancy and growth of the community.
“I was blown away at the beauty of the vibrant colors, which makes it a very happy and positive space,” said Safran, director of philanthropy for the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. A friend of the Kostelitz family, he said that he has taken out books on Jewish history and the origins of Jewish holidays.
Noting that his last name is Hebrew for librarian, Safran said he is a descendant of book binders and printers. The library at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield was named for his grandparents Leah & Hyman Safran. He said he has vivid childhood memories of spending time there as well as at the Baldwin Public Library in Birmingham.
“On the day the Detroit Jewish Library opened, there was such a charge of positive energy in the air, and kids were eager and happy to get their own library cards. This, to me, is one more example of just why Detroit has the greatest Jewish community in the world,” he said.
— RABBI ARI KOSTELITZ
LEGACY OF READING
Also visiting the library on opening day with two of her sons, ages 7 and 11, was Julie Hauser of Oak Park. Hauser’s kids were excited to get their own library cards and have already visited the library a few times to borrow Jewish comic books and graphic novels that cover everything from Midrash to history.
Hauser, who has authored one book about Jewish mothers around the world and three children’s books — two of them included in the library’s collection — said this newest library is part of a legacy of Jewish libraries in Detroit’s Jewish community.
“It is great that the Jewish library tradition is continuing here in Oak Park,” said Hauser, who has five children. “My husband and I and our children love to borrow books. We are always striving to learn and grow through reading.”
For more information about the Detroit Jewish Library, call (248) 794-7372.
