Our curated display of books and materials often features works relating to Jewish Holidays, upcoming events, or selected topics. Also displayed are youth and children’s books; works of fiction and non-fiction; large-print books; biographies and Russian language books. See ‘About Our Library’ below for additional information.
The Jewish Community Center of Omaha (JCC) began in 1926 as a place where people could connect, belong, and grow. The first building was located at 29th and Dodge Streets.
During Jewish Book Month in 1945, The Library of Judaica opened its doors within the JCC. The library was the culmination of a dream of people long associated with Jewish education in Omaha. The Library of Judaica became the Omaha Jewish Federation Library.
Paul Veret, Executive Director of the JCC from 1938-1970, had a life-long passion for reading and collecting books of Judaica. His love and commitment to providing education resources for the Jewish community led him to generously donate his collection of an estimated ten to thirteen thousand volumes to The Library of Judaica.
The Kripke-Veret Library Collection was born.
The JCC continued to expand the collection with the guiding principle of acquiring only materials with Jewish content or authorship. The growth over time led the head librarian to comment that “all the resources were contained in three little rooms and the books were in closets all over the place, piled to the ceiling.”
The JCC relocated to its present location on 132nd Street in 1974 and the library was afforded additional space, thus continuing to expand its collection. With the assimilation of a large Russian population into the Omaha Jewish community, the need for Russian language materials grew in Judaic and non-Judaic materials. As space needs continued to grow the JCC Board of Directors authorized the reconfiguration of an area of the building for the library. Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke contributed a considerable sum of money to the project and on November 19, 2000 the library held its grand opening in the new space, now named Kripke Library.
The Kripke Library became a well-respected resource for scholarly and popular Jewish works. As digital resources grew, library use tapered. When the building began an extensive renovation in 2017, a space usage study was conducted and it was determined that the space held by the Kripke Library would become a much-needed meeting, class and reception space.
With a strong commitment to preserving The Kripke-Veret Library Collection, a cooperative arrangement was entered into with the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). The University accepted a significant number of volumes of The Kripke-Veret Library Collection as a gift from The Jewish Federation of Omaha (JFO)]. The collection will exist within UNO’s Criss Library in perpetuity and is available to the world of academia and to Omaha’s Jewish community through the Criss Library card catalog and through the Kripke-Veret Library Collection card catalog on this website.]
A large number of the Collection’s volumes remain on the JCC Campus and can be perused and enjoyed in the Learning Commons area of the JCC Reception area.
All volumes of The Kripke-Veret Library Collection, from the JCC Campus and from UNO’s Criss Library, are available for check-out. Simply:
You will be sent an email when the book is available for pickup at the reception desk of the Staenberg Omaha JCC. Books that are located at the JCC will generally be available the next business day. Books from the UNO Criss Library will take additional time, usually within three business days.
If you have not checked out materials before, you will complete the process for becoming a patron when you arrive to pick up your selection.
Items in the collection are displayed as thumbnails. The upper left corner of each thumbnail indicates whether the item is “In” or “Out.” At the bottom of the thumbnail there is text indicating the location of the item:
"*" indicates required fields
