Press release: 24.6.2015

Quelle lebender Bücher | 75 Jahre Bibliothek der Israelitischen Cultusgemeinde Zürich

The library of the Israelite Cultus Community in Zurich (ICZ) is celebrating its 75th anniversary by publishing a book. This is to be presented on 8 July 2015 at the German National Library in Frankfurt am Main. In it, 75 users describe their favourite book from the ICZ library. The result is a cross section of the library's holdings, covering 500 years of book history.

Journalist David Dambitch of Deutschlandfunk will be interviewing publisher Judith Luks and publicist Michael Guggenheimer about the ICZ library, its unique holdings and the commemorative book project. Together with Vivianne Berg, Heinz Egger, Ashraf Noor and Pavel Schmidt they will be offering an insight into the "fount of living books" in a dramatic reading.

The Israelite Cultus Community of Zurich, or ICZ for short, has its own special library. The doors of library were opened in 1939 right at the start of World War 2. It remained the only German-speaking Jewish library to stay open throughout the War and afterwards. Today readers can choose from over 60,000 media items, taking advantage of the wide range of fiction and poetry in German, Hebrew and English, or of the outstanding collection of academic works about the Jewish people.

Event organised by the German National Library in cooperation with edition clandestin, Biel, Switzerland, under the patronage of the Swiss Consulate General, Frankfurt am Main.

The event will be held at 19:00 on 8 July 2015 in the lecture theatre of the German National Library Frankfurt am Main, Adickesallee 1, 60322 Frankfurt am Main.

Background

For over a century now the German National Library has been collecting, documenting, archiving and making publicly available all written and sound recording publications issued in Germany, or in German, since 1913. It provides its comprehensive range of services at its twin sites in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main, but also in digital form to a global circle of users. In addition the German National Library also houses valuable and extensive special collections in the German Exile Archive 1933 - 1945 and the German Museum of Books and Writing. It showcases its valuable collections and promotes the culture of books, reading and music by regularly staging readings, exhibitions, lectures and concerts. It houses over 30 million media units and attracts roughly 220,000 visitors to its two sites in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main with its collections and rich and varied programme of events.

Admission is free of charge. Please book in advance
Ausstellungen-Frankfurt

Please contact the publisher of the commemorative book project Judith Luks if you have any questions
Judith Luks