Pioneer Women to Construct Library School Building at Hebrew U.

The annual national board meeting of Pioneer Women, the Women’s Labor Zionist Organization of America, voted unanimously today to undertake the construction of a Graduate Library School Building at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at a cost of $130,000.

The decision to build the Graduate Library School “to train the future guardians of Israel’s literary heritage” was made at the opening session of the two-day meeting in the Statler Hilton Hotel of the 100 national leaders who govern Pioneer Women between the organization’s biennial conventions. Clara Leff, national president of Pioneer Women, presided. Pioneer Women, an organization of 35,000 American Jewish women, spends more than $1,000,000 annually to maintain its comprehensive program of social welfare and educational services in Israel.

Mrs. Leff explained that in constructing the Hebrew University’s Graduate Library School Building, Pioneer Women “would pay tribute to the life work of Sophie Udin, founder in 1925 of Pioneer Women, who was the moving spirit in the creation of the Zionist Archives and Library in the United States, and who was subsequently invited to Israel to establish the archives of the Israel Government.”

Mrs. Leff pointed out that the need in Israel for a Graduate Library School has become increasingly urgent since 1948 when the Jewish National and University Library, with its 500,000 books, rare manuscripts and other literary treasures, on Mount Scopus, was cut off and isolated from Israel by the Arabs. The National Board designated Mrs. Israel Goldstein of New York City as chairman of a special committee to raise the $130,000 necessary to construct the Graduate Library School.