Slier got it wrong on the Beyachad Library

Isla Feldman

The South African Zionist Federation library was housed at De Villiers Street (in the Johannesburg CBD) for many decades. When Beyachad, an administrative organisation, was established and under whose aegis all the Jewish organisations were amalgamated, it was Beyachad that took over the running of the library for the community.

Inevitably, however, the library ceased to be user-friendly and lost much of its patina, as Beyachad lacked the capacity to promote and successfully run it. 

Members of a committee endeavoured to raise funds for its upkeep, but were not successful and in order to preserve the historic documentation, books and South African Zionist history, the SAZF was requested to finance and run the library.

 It was unanimously decided that the SAZF library would become instead a reference library, housing 115 years of local Zionist material.

Without the involvement of the SAZF in preserving the intellectual and historical documentation, the library would be closed and the documentation lost.

The SAZF has invested a considerable amount of money in refitting the library. A qualified librarian has been employed  and the library now superbly upgraded, is available to the community and other interested parties for research purposes. 

While it is no longer a lending library, it welcomes community members who seek to research documents and books on the premises. It also houses a very comprehensive audiovisual section; and there are a number of novels available for lending purposes. 

The SAZF takes exception to Slier’s sarcastic comment about our becoming a laughing stock and having no intellectual standing. Almost all research today, both locally and internationally, can be accessed on the Internet. The SAZF Isie Maisels Reference Library exists to preserve our rich Zionist history for future generations.