The Smotrich Family Endowed Collection in Jewish Studies

Marvin Smotrich earned a degree in zoology from UCLA in 1959, and he has two treasured memories of the UCLA Library. One is of the beauty of the Powell Library building, and the other is of books housed in open stacks, where while searching for one title, browsing among its neighbors often turned up more useful references. Dr. Smotrich's love of books has stayed with him throughout his life; although he doesn't consider himself a book collector, he has an extensive library and is constantly giving books away to make room for more. After an event at the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies reintroduced Dr. Smotrich to the Library, he decided to combine his love for books and his fond memories of the Library through the creation of The Smotrich Family Endowed Collection in Jewish Studies. In this way, future generations of UCLA students and scholars will benefit from Dr. Smotrich's generous support of UCLA and will also be able to experience his delight in the serendipitous discoveries that come from browsing library shelves.