When Temple Beth El of Somerset decided to create a lending library, it seemed like an easy task. But after the table was set up in the lobby, the signs were made, and the “library cards” were all in order, when they went into the synagogue library to choose a few books to display, it was chaos.
Over the years, people had donated books, some because they were moving and downsizing, some because they had inherited books they didn’t want, some because they had already read these books and didn’t need to do so again. In addition, over the years the temple had acquired new editions of siddurim and machzors; no one could be found to take the old ones so they, too, sat in the library. Most of these books were just placed on shelves wherever they could be squeezed in; many were just in a stack. Clearly, work needed to be done.
Two members of the congregation, Marge Kawalek and Adele Gilman, stepped forward, and after eight months (with a couple of months off for a stay in Florida), the synagogue library was a beautiful, orderly place, with books shelved by category, labels on each shelf designating what was there, and even space for more books. And, there were sixteen cardboard boxes of books that needed to be buried sitting in the coat room.
Someone remembered that there were even more boxes of books in the shed behind the parking lot, and it became evident that the coat room and the shed behind the parking lot were not a suitable genizah for holy books.
On October 19 the temple held a formal burial of the books. Rabbi Eli Garkfinkel created a simple, moving ceremony. “Only saving a person’s life is more important to us than the Torah and our holy books,” he said. The burial was done with reverence and care, ensuring the sacred items were treated with dignity. The boxes were lowered into earth in the tree-filled area between the temple and the rabbi’s house, and members of the congregation came forward to put the first shovelfuls of dirt over them.
Marge Kaewalek and Adele Gilman were honored with framed certificates that read, “The Jewish people are the People of the Book. Temple Beth El recognizes Marge Kawalek (Adele Gilman) as a Person of the Books.” And the lending library in the lobby is doing very well.
