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A new children’s book will depict the Jewish Theological Seminary’s devastating 1966 library fire — and how its neighbors responded
(JTA) — Just before locking down in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, children’s book author Caroline Kusin Pritchard was waiting to pick up her two toddlers from preschool at Congregation Beth Am in Palo Alto, California, when she saw a thin volume poking out of a shelf in the synagogue library.
The 56-page book, called “Fire! The Library is Burning,” by Rabbi Barry Cytron, detailed a historical event she had never heard of before: the 1966 library fire at the Jewish Theological Seminary, in the Manhattan neighborhood of Morningside Heights.
The fire was a devastating event for the seminary, the flagship institution of Conservative Judaism. It destroyed some 70,000 books and 40 Torahs in the library’s collection, some of which had been saved from Poland. No people were hurt and few rare books were burned, but because of the way the library was constructed, in a windowless tower, the only way to put it out was to dump water from above, resulting in sweeping damage even to volumes that escaped the flames.
What grabbed Kusin Pritchard’s attention was not the fire itself, but the way New Yorkers who lived and worked near the school responded to it — volunteering to evacuate books from the library and protect them from lasting damage.
That response is the focus of her upcoming children’s book, “The Keeper of Stories,” announced this week and due out in the fall of 2024. The episode, Kusin Pritchard said, feels all the more meaningful at a time when activists and local governments across the country are banning books — including some about the Holocaust — and restricting them from school library shelves.
“I just never thought a story about saving books would feel radical in 2023,” she said. “People are proactively going out of their way to strip books from public libraries and school shelves.”
The message of “The Keeper of Stories,” Kusin Pritchard added, is that “it didn’t matter to people what necessarily was in the books. They just knew there was inherent value and the story is being told and to save and protect books more generally, like these sacred gatekeepers of our humanity.”
The book is on the road to publication at a time of significant change for the JTS library, a large and storied institution with 400,000 volumes that includes a notable collection of rare Jewish books. The library downsized its space after a 2015 real estate deal and has more recently drawn scrutiny for auctioning some of its rare books. The longtime lead librarian who led the efforts to recover from the fire, Menahem Schmelzer, died last year.
Schmelzer, a Holocaust survivor born in Hungary who served as JTS’ head librarian from 1964 to 1987, spoke to Kusin Pritchard about his recollection of the fire, which happened to occur on his birthday.
“He was able to share just gorgeous, textured memories about what the experience was like for him,” she recalled.
“There’s a refrain throughout about ‘the keeper of stories,’” Kusin Pritchard added, referencing the book’s title. “This idea of, ‘who are the keepers of stories?’ Is it the building involved? Is it the pages of the book?”
Kusin Pritchard is the author of other children’s books with Jewish themes. “Gitty and Kvetch,” released in 2021, features a character who is always complaining; “Where is Poppy?”, out next year, is about a girl’s first Passover after her grandfather’s death. The new book, meant for readers in elementary school, will be illustrated by Selina Alko, who is Jewish and has previously illustrated books about interfaith holiday celebrations and the effort to save Czech children from the Nazis.
“The Keeper of Stories” will depict the steps that JTS’s neighbors took to save the books that didn’t burn. They formed an impromptu chain to pass books out of the library, pack them in boxes and, in turn, clear the boxes out to make more space for additional evacuated books. Volunteers also mobilized to place paper towels between each page of books soaked by the firehoses that were in danger of growing mold.
“These volunteers came from across the city and dried these books with paper towels and you can still see the places where they taped them and glued them back together on some of these actual books, on the pages.” Kusin Pritchard said. “Their stories still kind of exist in person.”
Initially, Kusin Pritchard wrote the draft from the perspective of the person who came up with the idea of using paper towels to preserve the books — an effort that caused a run on the towels nearby. But she soon realized that the story was about more than one individual’s efforts to save the contents of a library, so none of the characters is named.
“This wasn’t about this one person,” Kusin Pritchard said. “It was about how everyone came together. Preschoolers, students down the street, the pastors, the company that heard about this and sent paper towels, or General Foods who had these freeze dryers and they sent their food scientists to try and freeze dry the books. It was a collective.”
Kusin Pritchard said she usually writes lighter fare, but as the parent of three young children — 6, 4 and 2 years old — she said she isn’t worried about frightening readers.
“Kids can take on and handle a lot more than we give them credit for,” she said.
She also hopes to show her young readers that they can play a role in safeguarding books, too.
“In a world where book banning seems more and more normalized,” she said, “a story about saving books feels really resonant.”
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Toronto man arrested after allegedly shooting at Orthodox Jews outside a synagogue
(JTA) — Police in Toronto have arrested a man they say shot at “visibly identifiable members of the Jewish community” on two occasions a week apart.
Ruslan Novruzov, 18, is charged with assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose in conjunction with the shootings, which took place on April 30 and Thursday, one week later.
In both incidents, people experienced minor injuries, according to the Toronto police. The shooting on Thursday targeted three people standing outside of Congregation Chasidei Bobov, an Orthodox synagogue.
Following the shootings, the Toronto police tracked a blue Lexus to a residence in a suburb about 15 miles north of the shootings, where they said they searched both a home and a car and seized evidence including two “gel-blaster imitation firearms.”
The shootings and arrest add to a string of recent incidents targeting Jews and Jewish institutions in the Toronto area. A different 18-year-old man was charged last week in connection with two synagogue shootings that took place on March 6, but other incidents remain unsolved. No major injuries or damage has been reported, but the incidents have swelled anxiety within the city’s Jewish communities.
“We recognize that Jewish residents have been living with a heightened sense of fear due to repeated incidents targeting their community, and this only adds to that, which is unacceptable,” Acting Deputy Chief Joe Matthews said in a statement following Novruzov’s arrest. “While the weapons used were imitation firearms, the impacts are very real. These are criminal acts that we allege were meant to intimidate and cause fear.”
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Canada’s main Jewish advocacy group, expressed gratitude to the police for acting quickly.
“These incidents must continue to be treated with the seriousness they deserve, and those responsible must be held fully accountable,” it said on X. ”It’s long past time for governments and authorities to confront the serious threats driving violent attacks before we face a tragic loss of life.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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Netanyahu on ‘60 Minutes’: Fight with Hezbollah should be seen as separate from Iran war
(JTA) — In an appearance on U.S. television on Sunday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that Israel should continue fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon even if the war in Iran concludes.
Netanyahu spoke with Major Garrett on CBS’ “60 Minutes” as President Donald Trump continues to negotiate to end the Iran war that he and Netanyahu jointly began in February. When Trump declared a ceasefire with Iran on April 7, Netanyahu initially insisted that the deal did not require Israel to stop fighting Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy based in Lebanon. The Iranians insisted that it did, and Trump soon weighed in on social media to say that Israel was “prohibited” from attacking inside Lebanon.
In the weeks since, Israel and Hezbollah have continued to fight, but at a decreased intensity. Now, with Trump seemingly not eager to resume fighting with Iran even as the Iranians have not acceded to his demands at the negotiating table, Netanyahu said the conflicts should be decoupled.
“Is it possible, Mr. Prime Minister, that the war with Iran could end but the war with Hezbollah could continue? That these would be separate and divergent fields,” Garrett asked.
“They should be,” Netanyahu answered. “What Iran would like to do is to say, ‘No, you know, if we achieve a ceasefire here, we want a ceasefire there.’”
“Will you accept that?” Garrett asked. After Netanyahu said he would not, Garrett went on: “Even if President Trump asks you to?”
Netanyahu replied, “Look, he understands what I’m saying.”
Trump’s critics on both sides of the aisle have alleged that Netanyahu pushed him into entering the war. But Netanyahu said that belief is wrong. He called reporting by The New York Times about what he told Trump during a Feb. 11 White House meeting “incorrect,” saying that he had never told Trump that regime change in Iran was an assured outcome of a shared attack.
Netanyahu also insisted to Garrett that declining public support for Israel in the United States was a product of online campaigns designed to spread misinformation.
“Do you believe that’s the only explanation, or is it possible that some Americans have come to a different sense of Israel because of the last two or three years?” Garrett pressed.
“What they see is so many falsifications and vilifications that are unfounded, but they don’t know because they just get you know, the last reel in the movie. They don’t see the entire movie,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli government recently allocated $730 million for public diplomacy, including online campaigns, designed to boost public opinion about Israel. The allocation quadrupled what was set aside last year for that purpose.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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Labour politician is booed as thousands rally against antisemitism in London
(JTA) — Thousands of British Jews, as well as politicians from multiple parties, rallied in London outside the prime minister’s residence on Sunday to call for more aggressive action against antisemitism following a string of violent attacks.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative party leader whose response to a heckler making light of threats against Jews went viral last week, spoke forcefully in defense of U.K. Jewry, to applause.
“I stand for a Britain where Jews can go to school freely without worrying about security,” she said. “I stand for a Britain where you can worship freely and not worry about who is coming to attack you. I stand for the celebration of Jewish culture and Jewish people. And I stand for a Britain that will always fight for you, that will always support you.”
The Labour Party representative dispatched by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, meanwhile, drew boos from an audience frustrated by what many British Jews view as an inadequate response from the government.
“I hear your anger, I hear your pain,” said Pat McFadden, the secretary of state for work and pensions. “I stand against antisemitism, I stand with you.” As he spoke, rally organizers at times interrupted to exhort the crowd to quiet down.
Gideon Falter, head of the nonprofit Campaign Against Antisemitism, called in his speech for a ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which he called “hate marches,” as well as a ban on groups associated with antisemitic violence. He said U.K. Jews were facing a “Britifada,” a play on the word intifada.
He referred to a number of the most prominent recent incidents, including a stabbing in the Orthodox neighborhood of Golders Green earlier this month and an attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur in which two congregants were killed.
“Jews stabbed. That’s the Britifada! Murder on Yom Kippur. That’s the Britifada! Synagogues ablaze. That’s the Britifada! Hatzola ambulances pelted with rocks and torched. That’s the Britifada! Jewish children nearly mown down in a car ramming. That’s the Britifada!” Falter said. “The attacks are coming thick and fast. Because Britain has become radicalized.”
The Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews organized the rally, titled “Standing Strong: Extinguish Antisemitism,” and were joined by dozens of Jewish groups. It took place outside 10 Downing Street in central London and featured video appearances from Jews around the world as well as from Boy George, the pop singer who has emerged as an advocate against antisemitism.
The rally also drew attention because of who was and was not invited.
Ahead of the rally, thousands of people signed a petition calling for Nigel Farage, who heads the right-wing Reform party, which made significant gains in local elections on Thursday, to be disinvited, given his “division, scapegoating, racism and inflammatory rhetoric” and allegations of antisemitism during his school years. (Farage dismissed the allegations when they emerged in 2024, saying that he could not remember all instances of “playground banter” from his childhood but that he had never sought to be intentionally hurtful.)
Farage did not appear at the rally, but his deputy, Richard Tice, did. He called for penalties against universities that are seen as encouraging antisemitism.
Zack Polanski, the Jewish leader of the left-wing Green party, which made gains in the local elections despite an antisemitism scandal involving dozens of candidates, was not invited to speak.
Saul Taylor of United Synagogue, the British Orthodox umbrella group, called out Polanski during his speech, alluding to both Polanski’s criticism of the Metropolitan Police’s handling of the arrest of the alleged Golders Green attacker and his party’s pro-Palestinian platform. “The constant vilification of Israel has fueled the flames of antisemitism across our nation,” Taylor said.
Taylor said the previous week had “probably been the most movement from the government we have seen in a long time” but that the pressure should remain. Last week, after an emergency meeting at 10 Downing Street, the Metropolitan Police announced a 100-member special force to protect Jewish communities. On Sunday, the police said they had charged a man with racially or religiously motivated assault and harassment after he attacked three Jews in Enfield.
At least one liberal Jewish group opted not to participate in the rally after initially signing on. The New Israel Fund UK announced ahead of the rally that it was backing out after political figures were invited to participate.
Other liberal Jews did take the stage. Rabbis Charley Baginsky and Josh Levy of Progressive Judaism, the U.K. equivalent of the Reform movement, who were booed off the stage at an August 2025 rally for the release of the Israeli hostages after calling for an end to the war in Gaza, exhorted attendees to ensure that England is not “shaped by suspicion, anger and permanent division.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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