The development of the field of librarianship as a profession for American Jewish women had much to do with Melvil Dewey (founder of the first library training school in 1887 and creator of the classification scheme bearing his name) and little to do with Judaism and Jewish culture. Paralleling the developing opportunities for women in the United States during the twentieth century, American Jewish women found librarianship, like teaching and social work, an attractive career choice. American Jewish women did not find acceptance in professional or even volunteer positions within Jewish communities until the late 1940s and early 1950s. The establishment of Jewish libraries in the United States reflects the tradition of male leadership within the Jewish community; leadership of major Jewish libraries was perceived as a scholar’s (in other words, man’s) position.

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In the 1950s, individual women librarians began to lay the foundation for cooperation in librarianship in the synagogue, school, and center environments, as well as in specialized research libraries.

Miriam Leikind, the first full-time librarian of The Temple in Cleveland, was a creative force and catalyst for collective activity. She organized gatherings and persuasively convinced educators, librarians, rabbis, and others involved in Jewish education of the need to cooperate to improve the quality of library services. With the encouragement of her rabbi, Abba Hillel Silver, Leikind extended her dream of cooperation to institutions throughout North America. Leikind and her colleague and fellow librarian Mae Weine of Philadelphia (now of Detroit) cofounded the Jewish Library Association in Atlantic City in June 1962 after both the American Library Association and the Special Libraries Association did not accept their recommendation for a separate Judaica section in their organizations.

At the instigation of Miriam Leikind in 1962, the Jewish Book Council provided financial support to hold the first exhibit on Jewish libraries at the annual convention of the ALA. The exhibit booth was visited by several thousand people, and its popularity encouraged the council to make the exhibit an annual event. Although the council arranged for the exhibit booth at the ALA convention in a different location each year, it was the librarians of the Jewish community centers, synagogues, and schools who assumed responsibility for local arrangements and appointed a committee to create and staff the exhibit booth. The purpose of these activities was twofold: First, the booth was designed to increase knowledge and awareness of Jewish books; more important, it generated great interest in and support for the new Jewish Library Association.

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