Today is March 19, 2024 /

Temple Israel

Temple Israel

Building Community Since 1954
A Progressive Conservative Synagogue Serving Central Florida

(407) 647-3055 | manager@tiflorida.org
50 S. Moss Rd., Winter Springs, FL 32708

Library

Books

AccreditationAssociation of Jewish Libraries

Highlights of our collection

E-Books, Audiobooks, DVDs of Music & Movies

THE LIBRARY AT TEMPLE ISRAEL IS YOUR RESOURCE CENTER FOR eBOOKS, DVDs, MUSIC, AND MOVIES. Whether you are interested in listening to Yiddish songs, Hebrew prayers, or an Audio book, come and check out what is available here at the TI Library. We have a digital library of over 140 e-books, including The Observant Life by Martin Cohen. There should be something for everyone. We have a large collection of movies, many of them from our Sunday at the Movies Adult Education series, in case you missed them, as well as many others, including Sarah’s KeyThe Frisco KidKeeping the FaithBugsy Malone,UshpizinThe Devil’s ArithmeticDefianceEstherExodusFiddler on the Roof,Gentleman’s AgreementImage before my EyesMunichPersepolisSchindler’s List, and Yentl, just to name a few.

Fiction Section

Five years ago we began the transformation from a dusty back-room collection of outdated and worn-out books, to a new, readable, functioning collection that reflects the modern world. We began with putting one hundred new books on the shelf, while culling and weeding books that had reached the end of their usefulness, as all libraries do. Scouring the lists of Jewish Book Award winners, the Sydney Taylor Book AwardsJewish Lights and JPS publishers, and a variety of book reviews, we added bestsellers such as The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns,  A Tale of Love and DarknessSuite Francaise,The Bin LadensThe OrientalistThe Man in The White Sharkskin SuitMy Father’s ParadiseCaspian RainMoonlight on the Avenue of Faith, to mention only a few. In addition, we now have a fine collection of distinguished Israeli and diaspora writers. We have books by Maggie Anton, Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua (A Woman in Jerusalem), Anita Diamant (The Red Tent), Eva Etzioni-Halevy (The Garden of Ruth, The Song of Hannah), and Esther David (Shalom India Housing Society, The Walled City).

Children’s & Young Adults Section

52 award-winning books for our young readers, located on our new “YA/Older Children/Young Adult Readers Section“. This section is designed for ages 12 thru 18, although anyone would find them enjoyable reading, also! Please note, all of these books are award winners—Sydney Taylor Honor Awards and/or Jewish Book Award winners. Karen Hesse’s Brooklyn Bridge is set in 1903 Brooklyn, where fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom’s life changes for the worse when his Russian-immigrant parents, invent the teddy bear and turn their apartment into a factory, while nearby the glitter of Coney Island contrasts with the dismal lives of children dwelling under the Brooklyn Bridge. Three books are set during the Spanish Inquisition,–Incantation, where a sixteen-year-old Jewish girl discovers her true identity, but has her secret tragically betrayed; —By Fire, By Water, centers on the historical figure of Luis de Santángel, a converso and chancellor to the king of Aragon; —The Apprentice’s Masterpiece tells the story of two teenage boys, one a converso and the other Muslim.

The Bat-Chen Diaries is the story of Shahak Bat-Chen, a gifted teenager who was killed by a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Center during Purim 1996, on her 15th birthday. It was named one of Bank Street College of Education’s Best Books of the Year. A Bottle in the Gaza Sea is about the correspondence between seventeen-year-old Israeli Tal and twenty-year-old Naim, who lives in Gaza. There are three action-packed Rabbi Harvey books, The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey: A Graphic Novel of Jewish Wisdom and Wit in the Wild West,Rabbi Harvey Vs. the Wisdom Kid, and Rabbi Harvey Rides Again. Finally, there is the award-winning Gilgamesh TrilogyGilgamesh the KingThe Revenge of Ishtar, and The Last Quest of Gilgamesh, which won the Governor General’s Award for Illustration for Canadian-Czech author Lumila Zeman.

The Children’s Shelf has been updated, and three dozen new books added (NaamahGod Said AmenThe Secret Shofar of BarcelonaToday is the Birthday of the WorldNew Year at the PierGod’s PaintbrushThe Doll Shop Downstairs, and Solomon and the Ant).

Talmud, Zohar & Kabbalah Section

We have a complete set of the 1961 Soncino Edition of the Talmud,  Rashi’s Commentary on the Pentateuch, and the Mishna. Three years ago a gift of a 23-volume set of Zohar sparked an acquisition of Kabbalistic books, including The Thirteen-Pedalled Rose, and Window of the Soul.

The Harold Rosenblum Collection

The gift of more than a hundred books from Harold Rosenblum’s library has enriched our shelves immeasurably, notably the photographic volumes of Roman Vishniac, and Chaim Potok.

Below are two Library card catalogues, the Elazar Card Catalog and the Alpha List.

  1. The Elazar Card Catalog, which is a modified Dewey decimal system, is the main organizational feature, showing where the books are in their individual categories, such as Bible, History, Geography, Fiction, etc. The ten categories are listed at the top of the Elazar, on page 1. By clicking on the “Search” button, and entering a category, or a book title, you can go straight to the category or the book.
  2. The AlphaList is a listing of all books by author, from A to Z.

Library Hours

  • The library is open during normal office hours (Mon.-Fri., 8:30 am-4:30 pm) and by appointment.