Museum
Library

The museum's library combines two book collections - the Library of the Research Center and the Library of the House of Jewish Books.

Research Center Library
The Research Center library opened in 2018. The basis of the library was the book collection of Aron Vergelis (1918 – 1999), a Soviet Jewish poet and editor-in-chief of the magazine “Sovietish Heimland”. The library's collection is constantly replenished through purchases and private donations. The library specializes in research literature on Jewish history and culture. Currently, the library's collections contain more than 6,000 books in Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, English, German and other languages. The collection of old and rare books includes about a thousand Jewish religious books from the 18th to 20th centuries. The Research Center library operates in the format of a reading room; books are not issued at home.

Contemporary Art Library
A new section, the Contemporary Art Library, was added in 2024. The core of the library is the private collection of books previously owned by curator and art theorist Josef Backstein (1945–2024), donated to the museum by his widow, art critic Katy Deepwell. The Contemporary Art Library comprises catalogs of exhibitions, biennials and art fairs, periodicals, and books on the history and theory of art and curatorial and artistic practices, both in Russian and other languages. Please e-mail us in advance to take out a book. Please note that visitors are not allowed to take books home; books from the library can only be read in the reading room.

Library of the House of Jewish Books
The library of the House of Jewish Books (DEC) Foundation is one of the largest Jewish book collections in modern Russia. The DEK meeting was formed from 2001 to 2018. under the leadership of the founder and director of the foundation, Viktor Daniilovich Indenbaum (1948 - 2018), with financial support from the Jewish distribution committee "Joint". In addition to the book collection, numbering more than 15 thousand items, the collection includes Jewish magazines and newspapers. In 2022, the Knizhniki publishing house acquired the DEK collection and transferred it to the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. Currently, DEK books are available for lending in the reading room of the Research Center library.

Library Catalog

Donation and bookcrossing
We will be happy to accept books on the immediate subject of our library - research in the field of history and culture of the Jewish people. Please note that we do not accept literature with anti-Semitic and extremist content. Bookcrossing is organized in the reading room of the museum library. You can leave books in a special cabinet, and also take any publications you like for free.