Tribute to Sam Lampert and the Lampert Library

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Aileen Grossberg shared this tribute at the Shabbat service on November 23, 2024. Additional comments were made by Katherine Delaney. 

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Jewish Book Month which begins tomorrow and has been going strong for 99 years.

It’s so appropriate that today when we celebrate the many years that the Lampert family has supported the library and made books available to the Shomrei community, we also celebrate the 60th anniversary of Judy Wildman’s bat mitzvah. As Jews, as People of the Book, we hold both bound books and the Torah scroll in high esteem.

For some of you what follows will be a walk down Memory Lane; for others it will be a history lesson.

Around 1982, Sam Lampert and his late wife Esther decided that they wanted to honor the memory of their son Alan. They chose the library at Shomrei Emunah.

This was the first of the big changes in the over forty years that I’ve been the librarian at Shomrei. Back then, the library was a small collection of books, standing on gray metal shelves, in a back corner of what was called the vestry- basically where the library is today. It was dark and damp; there was no place to sit; everything was done by hand. There wasn’t even a typewriter.

Over the years, the library moved to a well-lit classroom; it got its own typewriter; new shelving made it attractive; there was a regular library column in the synagogue bulletin.

The Lampert family was always there to help support the library.

When the building was renovated about 25 years ago, the library moved temporarily to the stage and through the efforts of the Lampert family, the library was completely new except ironically for the location. The library was back in that same corner but it was no longer dark and damp. There was new lighting and carpeting to soften the hard floor. It had an electric typewriter.

The library committee of Herman Golllob, Helen and Jerry Weiss and Marjorie Horowitz, a beloved Glenfield School librarian, along with me spent hours planning the new library with its quality shelving and sturdy, comfortable work tables and chairs.

Preschool and religious school classes came to the library for library time; the library sponsored a series of lectures under the helm of Herman Gollob.

Today’s Lampert Library is accessible not just from the library’s Shomrei space, but also from members’ personal space via its online catalog.

The library is used for meetings and classes and houses a collection of more than 5000 items including a well-used pre-school collection.

As for the typewriter. it sits neglected on a high shelf, replaced by a computer and printer. But you never know when it might be needed – this is a librarian’s mantra.

The Lampert Library has been and still is self-supporting through donations. Thanks to the Lampert family and friends and to Shomrei congregants – especially Stuart Larkin – the Lampert Library has been able to buy the best of contemporary Jewish-oriented books for readers of all ages and includes books awarded medals by the Jewish Book Council, the Association of Jewish Libraries, the American Library Association, and other groups that commend Jewish interest books. Our next purchase will be a portable book display to use in the upstairs Gallery for Shabbat book borrowing.

This is YOUR library sustained by YOUR donations.

Recently, Katherine Delaney, a Rutgers University Library School student, has taken a course in synagogue librarianship offered by the Association of Jewish Libraries. Between her full-time job at Rutgers and being mother of three sons, Katherine is acting as an intern in the Lampert Library, helping with library tasks when she has the time and ushering in a new era for the library including playing a major role in securing accreditation for the library from the Association of Jewish Libraries.

Personally my experience as librarian has been among the most rewarding I’ve had: I was able to self-train in many library tasks, go to Rutgers to earn an MLS and have a second career as a school and public librarian. I’ve had a chance to write reviews and articles, met many wonderful colleagues from around the country by being active in the Association of Jewish Libraries and attended conferences in Israel, Canada and many cities in the US.

However, most rewarding of all have been the scores of kids with whom I’ve shared great Jewish stories through library story times. And not far behind is the satisfaction of answering questions or finding the just right book for the library’s adult users. A library is nothing without its people.

You can see from the tributes that in the years since the library has come full circle from the damp, dark corner of the vestry back to the same corner transformed, it has made a difference in the life of the congregation and hopefully will continue to do so.

Thank you, Sam and Jordan and the rest of the Lampert family and friends for investing in the library; thank you to Shomrei congregants and friends – especially Stuart Larkin – who have supported the library and continue to do so. And thank you to those who use the library.

Before we hear from Jordan Lampert representing the Lampert family, the Preschool would like to present Sam with a very special birthday card.

Read the Memoriam to Alan Lampert from his brother Jordan

Thank you, Jordan, Alan was a very special person. We are honored at Shomrei to have our library named in his memory.                                             

As we close our program, it seems appropriate to recite a blessing. We seem to have a blessing for everything, There probably is even one for libraries. Since the shehecheyanu expresses our gratitude for arriving at a particular moment, it seems to be the right blessing for this moment.

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