Destruction of the Mocatta Library and Gustave Tuck Theatre

<plain_text><page sequence="1">THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MOCATTA LIBRARY AND THE GUSTAVE TUCK THEATRE It is with profound grief that the Council have to announce the total destruction, during the recent German air attacks on London, of the Mocatta Library and the Gustave Tuck Theatre. With the exception of only a few volumes, the Society has entirely lost the great Library constituted by Frederick David Mocatta, enriched by the collections of Israel Abrahams, Lucien Wolf, Hartwig Hirschfeld and Sir Hermann Gollancz, and extended by systematic purchases and by gifts over a period of some thirty-five years. The loss to historical scholarship in its wider sense, and not to Jewish scholarship alone, is inestim? able. The Society cannot permit its activities to be shattered by this barbarous blow of German terrorism, and steps are already being taken to reconstitute the collection so far as this is possible. It is confidently hoped that all members will assist in this important work to their utmost ability.</page></plain_text>