Each year Sean and I go up to Camp Ramah Canada. The timing changes from year to year, but we are happy to be here. Over the years, we have offered to "do whatever needs to be done." This is something we should know better than to do. We have moved from rabbinic teaching to doing exactly what need to be done. Last year we cleaned the library of old, moldy (yes, moldy) tallitot, tefillin, and siddurim that had been left unclaimed and uncared for for far too long. The work was physical and dirty, and very necessary. Out of the mess we salvaged a few tallitot and sets of tefillin that could be used as loaners, and brought home 1/2 a set of tefillin to which we were able to add a second half. It's amazing what is sometimes left behind.
This year we were assigned the library and the organization of siddurim in camp for inventory. It is dirty, dirty, dirty, dusty work. Each year Howard Slepkowitz (sorry Howard if I spelled your name wrong), aka Sleppy, came up to clean up the library. He's a librarian, and did a fine job. His kids have now gone through Ramah, and the job fell to us. We spent three very long days, standing, stretching, dusting, lifting, pulling, pushing, and most of all schlepping. Each night we returned to our tzrif (cabin) dirty, dusty, and sore, dust covering our clothes, our skin, and our nasal passages. Books live there year round, even when the camp is closed, so there's a lot of moisture and creatures that can invade.
A rabbi's eye is different from a librarian's eye. Sean and I can only work with a rabbi's eye, and that meant a reorganization.
First, with the amazingly dry summer, the layers of dust were thicker than ever. Every book needed to be removed from the shelves and wiped down. The shelves themselves also needed to be removed and wiped. In a rabbi's mind, or at least in this rabbi's mind, there is a progression of subjects in the library. We didn't start out to reorganize, but as we moved further into the library it seemed to happen.
We began in Reference. That section was pretty much left alone, but with more time I would move more books from a reference section to be nearer to their topics. Reference can be left to the encyclopedias. Talmudic dictionaries belong with the many masechtot (volumes) of Talmud, always at hand to be pulled out together for study. Next to reference was Philosophy and Jewish Thought. Beyond that Lifecycle and Guides to Jewish Living. Further on Kabbalah and Mysticism next to Halakhah (Jewish Law). In my rabbinic eye, Kabbalah and Mysticism belong with Jewish Thought. Jewish Practical Guides and Lifecycle flows into Halakhah since one naturally informs the other. I'd also like to breakdown history, Hebrew, Holocaust, and Israel into smaller subjects. This could go on for years.
Masechtot need to be in their proper order. Tanakh (Bible), Mishneh, and Talmud have a chronological order that should not be ignored. While intimately bound together, antisemitism does not necessarily belong to the section on Holocaust.
There was a wonderful section of educational books, programs, and guides for teachers, but as past teachers at Ramah, we knew no one ever looked there. Therefore, guides for teaching prayer are with t'fillah (prayer). Teachers guides on Israel are with Israel. We hope this will help madrichim (counselors) and morim (teachers) find develop new program ideas.
I'll admit we may have gone overboard. We removed every novel and storybook, sorted by secular or Jewish in theme and by age. Then again, I'm not sure D.H. Lawrence and The Hunger Games belong on the same shelf.
There were books it pained us to throw out, damp, spotted, and smelling of mildew. Others boggled the mind. Should a Jewish camp really have a book of Christian sermons from the 1950's entitled God, Christ, & Man. Historical books about Jesus, maybe. Volumes exploring comparative religion, definitely. Christian theology, not a a Jewish, religious camp.
Having finished the reorganization, I have new found respect for, and a deeper understanding of the choice of rabbis as heads of the Jewish Theological Seminary Library. What we keep on our shelves, whether as a movement, such as at JTS or Camp Ramah, or in our personal libraries, say much about who we are, what we believe, and what we value. That a summer camp maintains a large library with books for pleasure reading and serious study says much about that camp's ideology and values.
Did I mention the dust?
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