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Klau Library
The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati Library Pavilion and Klau Library
Location	3101 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH, United States
Type	Research library
Established	1875 (1875)
Other information
Website	www.huc.edu

The Klau Library (Cincinnati) is a Jewish research library in Cincinnati, OH. It contains one of the largest collections of Jewish printed material in the world and is the largest of the four libraries in the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) library system. Previously called the Hebrew Union College Library, it was renamed in 1961 in honor of David W. Klau of New York, who was a member of the College’s Board of Governors.

The library was established in 1875, making it one of the oldest Jewish institutional libraries in the United States. In 1931, the library moved into its first free-standing building, becoming the first Jewish library in the world to reside in its own building. In 1961, the library moved into its current home and was renamed Klau Library. The building underwent extensive renovations in the 2000s, and the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati Library Pavilion, the library’s grand entrance, was dedicated in 2009.

The Collection

The collection began with 130 volumes, mostly textbooks, and grew rapidly in size, initially from donations from founder Isaac Mayer Wise and his family. Major acquisitions include the M. Kayserling Library (a gift from Julius Rosenwald), the A. Freimann Collection, the Louis Grossmann Collection, and a collection from Temple Emanu-El in New York

Broadly, the collection currently contains

600,000 printed books

1,200 current periodical subscriptions

2,500 manuscript codices and many thousands of manuscript pages

19,000 microfiche

19,000 reels of microfilm

100,000 digital images from manuscripts and early printed books

3,300 sound recordings

14,000 books in the Rare Book Room

Non-book collections: Maps, Slides, Filmstrips, Bookplates, Stamps, Computer Programs, Games, and Kits.

Particular strengths of the collection include Ancient Near East Studies, Archives (non-American), Bible, Cabala, Calendars, Early Christianity, History, Jewish Americana, Maimonides, Philosophy, Rabbinics, Responsa, Spinozo, Wit and Humor, and Yiddish.

Rare Book Highlights

Kaifeng Manuscripts

The origins of the Jewish community of China likely date to the 12th or 13th centuries. Very few manuscripts from Kaifeng, the community’s largest settlement, survive. The Klau Library holds 59 of 64 known manuscripts (apart from Torah scrolls).

Incunables and Early Hebrew Printing

At the advent of movable type in the 15th century, Hebrew was the third language to appear in printed books. The Klau Library holds one of the world’s largest and most important collections of Hebrew books printed in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Liturgy

From a Genizah fragment of an Italian convert in the 12th century to cutting-edge contemporary Haggadot, the Klau Library holds liturgical collections covering the geographical and historical sweep of Jewish prayer, including (but not limited to) Samaritan, Aleppo, Karait, Roman, Romaniote, Sephardi, Hasidic, and Ashkenazi rites. Most notable are the holdings in Reform liturgy from its very inception.

Birnbaum Music Collection

Eduard Birnbaum was a cantor in Königsberg in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An inveterate collector of rare books and manuscripts, he amassed one of the largest manuscript collections of Jewish liturgical music.

Spinoza Collection

HUC-JIR’s collection of the works of Baruch Spinoza, collected in 1912, consists of early editions of the philosopher’s works, those of his contemporaries, and scholarly works on Spinoza. The collection of over 2,500 volumes was gathered in Cincinnati but has been moved to the College’s S. Zalman and Ayala Abramov Library in Jerusalem.

Lucille Klau Carouthers American Jewish Periodical Center

The Lucille Klau Carouthers American Jewish Periodical Center is a collection of microfilmed Jewish newspapers from around the United States.