Ancient Library Discovered in Condemned Structure in Jerusalem

A valuable library of Judaica comprising about 1,500 volumes was discovered here recently during a routine inspection of a condemned structure in the run down Nachlat Shiva Quarter, earmarked for demolition.

The library was assembled more than a century ago by Rabbi David ben Shimon of Egypt, who died here many years ago, and was inherited by his son who became chief rabbi of Egypt and took them with him to Cairo, Subsequently the books were taken to Morocco and later sent back to Jerusalem to the Yeshiva of Rabbi Amram Abu Rabiah in the Old City.

During the Mandatory period, when that Yeshiva building was closed by the British authorities as unsafe, the books were turned over to the Committee of the Moroccan Community, In the interim, however, many of the books became badly damaged due to their having been stacked in damp closets where vermin devoured many of their pages.

Through the assistance of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee here, the library has been recently installed in the Porath Yoseph Yeshiva which will restore it and place it in a special reading room. This Yeshiva was forced to abandon its 30,000-volume library when it evacuated its former quarters in the Old City in 1948.

Among the rare books in the Ben Shimon collection is a hand-written commentary on the Kabbalah by Jonah Hegirondi, a book on Jewish thought entitled “Ahavat Olam” by Shlomo Algazi published in 1647 in Constantinople, “Binah le’Etim” by Azaria Figo, published in Lemberg, Poland in 1527, and response by Joseph Caro, printed in Mantoa, Spain in 1790.