Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

November 17, 2015

Vilna’s Jewish Public Library and Its Post-Holocaust Fate

The Strashun Library.

Like his father Shmuel, Matisyahu Strashun (1817-1885) was a successful businessman and an accomplished talmudic scholar, as well as a prominent member of Vilna’s Jewish community. He also participated in the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), then in its heyday in Eastern Europe. In his lifetime, he amassed one of the world’s most extensive Judaica libraries. After his death, the collection took on a life of its own. Dan Rabinowitz writes:

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