About the project
The Jerusalem City Library opened in 1964 in Beit Ha’am (the People’s House). The library was the largest library facility in the city at the time, with 30,000 books for adults and children. The Jerusalem Foundation supported a major renovation of the library in 1973, and dedicated it as the Carl J. & Daniel P. Mayer Central City Library. The facility included the Arnold M. Grant Room, the Gene & Joan Grant Lending Library, the Samuel & Hannah W. Goldstein Memorial Reading Room, the Prof. Yosef Klausner Reading Rooms for Jewish Studies, the Nancy G. Mayer Reading Room, the Sally G. Morse Children’s Library, the Lawrence H. Girard Memorial Room, the Dr. Emanuel Moshe Luria Room for the Humanities, and the Moshe Kleinman Room. In time, the library became a major lending and reference library (by 2003, it had nearly 100,000 titles) as well as the central processing and distribution point for all branch libraries of the municipal library system. The Jerusalem Foundation has carried out additional improvements to the library over the years, including: establishment of the Kobak Library, an arts library that includes books, musical scores, slides and viewing and listening booths in 1980; general renovation when the library was incorporated into the Jacob & Hilda Blaustein Civic Center in 1987, and establishment of the Conrad & Barbara Amiel Black Reading Room with gifts raised at a tribute dinner held in Toronto in 1995 (Black is the former owner of the Jerusalem Post.) The Foundation also has supported computer system upgrades and the purchase of books and equipment.
