Catalogue

The library of the Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna is a specialist library on Judaism. The collection dates back to the early 19th century and consists of literature on Jewish history, religion and culture, as well as works of fiction by Jewish authors, magazines and reference works. It currently contains 38,000 volumes, the oldest dating from the 16th century. Around one third are in the Hebrew alphabet, of which 75% are in Hebrew and 25% in Yiddish. The remaining two thirds are mostly in German and English.

The main focus in these books is the history of the Jews in Vienna and Austria and the former Austro-Hungarian empire. There is also a significant collection of older works that provide an extremely interesting source of information about life in Vienna, such as the reports of the Jewish Community, annual reports by clubs and the like. The library has a considerable number of Jewish newspapers and magazines from the time before the Second World War.

The books written in Hebrew are mainly religious literature and rabbinica, but there are also works on the history of Israel and the Shoah (e.g. Yiskor books) and fiction. The Yiddish works are mainly fiction supplemented by a few notable magazines and scientific works.