Gershom (Gerhard) Scholem, a preeminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, is born in Berlin, into an assimilated German family. In 1915, he is expelled from school for writing a letter opposing Germany’s involvement in World War I, followed by his first published work in 1918, a German translation of Yizkor – A Memorial Volume for Fallen Watchmen and Workers in Eretz Yisrael. In 1923 he arrives in Eretz Yisrael, becoming a professor at the Hebrew University. Sholem is the first head librarian of the National Library’s Judaic collection, where he creates a hybrid method of the Dewey Decimal System to catalogue Judaica. He eventually donates his personal book collection of over 25,000 works to the National Library of Israel.
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