Classes were resumed here today at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where a devastating fire damaged many of the 200, 000 volumes in the institution’s library and caused heavy damage to three floors of the 12-story main building.
Aided by Christian students from the nearby Union Theological Seminary, 800 of the Jewish Seminary students formed a human chain to pass down by hand from the library tower to the basement gymnasium, many thousands of books, some charred, some water-logged and soggy. The books were taken then to a special laboratory for careful treatment and drying. The Seminary’s rare books and manuscripts, housed in vaults, escaped damage.
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