The library is open whenever the Temple buildings are open. Please feel free to come in and browse our collection. Make sure to sign out any books that you are borrowing. Our library is staffed from 3:30-5:30 pm, Tuesday-Thursday, and on Sunday mornings when there is Sunday Program.

Questions: library@betham.org or leave a message at (650) 493-3117, ext. 220.

The Library Committee meets on the 2 ^nd Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the library. New members or volunteers are always welcome. Please refer to the monthly calendar to confirm.

From July through November, the Sunnyvale Public Library has sponsored a reading and discussion series on Jewish literature. The theme for the discussions, Your Heart's Desire: Sex and Love in Jewish Literature, has included:

Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth

The Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley

A Simple Story by A.B. Yehoshua

The Lover by A.B. Yehoshua

The Mind-Body Problem by Rebecca Goldstein

Any member of the congregation or the community-at-large may check out books on a self-service basis for a period of 3 weeks. Please follow written instructions posted in the library. Make sure to return any books that you have borrowed at the book returns located outside next to the patio door and also inside the library at the counter.

Videos may be checked out for a period of one week. Video checkout is through a staff person only. See staff hours above.

The Beth Am Library has a wide selection of periodicals for your use. The most recent issue of a periodical is for use only in the Library. Back issues may be checked out for one week. We welcome suggestions for additional periodicals for the Library.

Avotaynu, Jewish genealogy, quarterly
Azure, ideas for the Jewish nation, quarterly
Biblical Archaeology Review, quarterly
Bridges, a journal for Jewish feminists and our friends, every 9 months
Commentary, monthly
Genealogical Society, quarterly
Hadassah, bi-monthly
Israel Horizons, bi-monthly
Jerusalem Post, weekly by airmail from Jerusalem
Jerusalem Report, bi-monthly
Jewish Woman, quarterly
Landsmen, publication of the Suwalk-Lomza (Lithuania) Interest Group for
Jewish Genealogists, bi-annually
Lilith, the independent Jewish women's magazine, quarterly
Moment, quarterly
Pakn Treger, magazine of the Yiddish Book Center, quarterly
Reform Judaism, publication of the UAHC, quarterly
Sh'ma, monthly
Tikkun, a Jewish critique of politics, culture, and society, bi-monthly
Western States Jewish History, quarterly
Zichronote, publication of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, quarterly

The Beth Am Library has a state-of-the-art Judaica Library Computer Catalog system. Books and videotapes may be searched by author, title, subject, or keyword. We also offer computer use for internet searches.

Generous donations have helped make it possible to continue to grow our collections. For $18.00 or more, a book will be purchased and a bookplate will be included with your name and the person you are honoring or memorializing. For more information, please contact us by e-mail or phone as shown below.

Tu B'Shevat Books in the Library:

February 9 is Tu B'Shevat, the Birthday of the Trees. The Torah and Jewish tradition have a lot to say about our responsibility to the environment, to our fellow human beings, and we speak of the Torah as a "Tree of Life." Below is a sampling of books in our collection about Tu B'Shevat for both adults and children

Children’s Books:

• Grandpa and Me on Tu B’Shevat by Marji E. Gold-Yukson, illustrated by Leslie Evans
• Solomon and the Trees by Matt Biers-Ariel, illustrated by Esti Silverberg-Kiss
• Together:  A Child-Parent Kit by Vicky Kelman with Joel Grishaver, Jane Golub & Alan Rowe

Adult Books:

• Behold the Trees by Sue Alexander, illustrated by Leonid Gore
• A Living Tree:  The Roots and Growth of Jewish Law by Elliot N. Dorff & Arthur Rosett
• A Person Is Like a Tree:  A Source Book for Tu Beshavat by Yitzhak Buxbaum
• Seder Tu Bishevat, the Festival of Trees by Adam Fisher
• Trees, Earth, and Torah:  Tu B’Shvat Anthology edited by Ari Elon, Naomi Mara Hyman, & Arthur Waskow
• The Way into Judaism and the Environment by Jeremy Bernstein

New DVDs in the Library:

Click HERE for a list of DVDs in the Library.

The Beth Am Library recently purchased a 20-volume set of DVDs called Israel Up Close: Video News, Beyond the Headlines. Each volume has three stories on a single DVD disc, with running timres from 9 to 16 minutes. Topics include music, agriculture, sports, education, tourism and much more.

Are you preparing for a trip to Israel? Do you need a program for your next Chavurah get together? Need a timely topic for a class project? Check out a DVD and learn about Israel from a perspective byeond the headlines!

Hoffman Book Donation
Tom and Mitzi Hoffman recently donated 65 books they purchased at bob & bob bookstore in honor of Dick and Caroline Hoffman. Dick and Caroline started the Beth Am library some 50 years ago and both are still very much involved in directing and running the library, volunteering together for 20 hours every week. Here are some of the books:

Jeffrey Shandler, Awakening Lives: Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland Before the Holocaust.

Benjamine Blech, Eyewitness to Jewish History

Anne Roiphe, Water from the Well:  Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah

Sylviah Barack Fishman, The Way into Varieties of Jewishness.

Books from bob & bob:
When bob and bob closed their Palo Alto shop, they call the Beth Am library to donate some of their books. We thankfully accepted their donation of books, valued over $3,000. Some titles included in their generous donation are:

Always from Somewhere Else:  A Memoir of my Chilean Jewish Father, by Marjorie Agosin.

Barrier:  The Seam of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,  by Isabel Kershner

Bible Dreams: The Spiritual Quest: How the Dreams in the Bible Speak to Us Today,  by Seymour rossel.

The Holocaust Encyclopedia ,  Edited by Walter Laqueur

The Inner Circle:  Seven Gates to Marriage,  by Shayna Ostrov.

Holocaust Books, Videos and DVDs for Reference and Borrowing:

The Holocaust in Lithuania 1941-45: A Book of Remembrance (2002) by Rose Lerer Cohen & Saul Issroff.

How to Document Victims and Locate Survivors of the Holocaust (1995) by Gary Mokotoff.

Where Once We Walked: A Guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust (Rev) (2002) by Gary Mokotoff.

Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II (2003) by Stuart E. Eizenstat.

A Conspiracy of Indifference, The Raoul Wallenberg Story (2001) by Alan Gersten.

A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair (2002) by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen.

In My Brother's Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith After the Holocaust (2002) by Eugene L. Pogany.

Evan Lurie chairs the Library Committee. Our professional librarian, Diane Rauchwerger, library committee volunteers, and madrichim staff are available to assist congregants with their library needs.

We welcome the opportunity to provide additional information. Please e-mail us at library@betham.org or leave a message through the library voicemail at 650/493-3117 extension 220.