Jewish libraries and reading rooms develop across Montreal

• By the early 1900s, small Jewish libraries and reading rooms develop across Montreal.
• A Jewish Library and Reading Room exists at 68 Boulevard Saint-Laurent.
• In 1903, Harry Hershman sets up an anarchist library at 36 Hermine St.
• Jewish groups such as Agudath Zion, Dorshai Zion, Poale Zion, and Chovovei Zion offer books at their headquarters.

1st Home: soft launch of the JPL at 404 Main St.

• A conference is held to establish a Jewish public library.
• On March 3, 1912, the Poale Zion library at 404 Main St. becomes the Jewish Public Library of Montreal.
• Reuben Brainin and Yehuda Kaufman are solicited for leadership roles.
• The lease expires, temporarily shutting down operations.

2nd Home: JPL is established at 669 Rue Saint-Urbain.

• On May 1^st, 1914, The Jewish Public Library reopens its doors in a modest cold-water flat at 669 Rue Saint-Urbain.
• The institution’s name is The Yiddishe Folks Bibliotek and Universitet (YIFO) or The Jewish People’s Library and University.
• Yehuda Kaufman and Reuben Brainin are its co-founders.
• The collection is made up of books from the Poale Zion, Baron de Hirsch Institute, various synagogues, and community members like Harry Hershman.
• The cooperation of Jewish groups varying in language, politics, and religious beliefs contributes to a non-partisan founding principle: “Our Public Library is the only Jewish cultural and democratic institution in all of Canada that does not follow a party platform.” as stated in the first annual report.

Historic visit by Yiddish comedian and author Sholem Aleikhem

• The Library is an educational and cultural hub for working class Jews. Yiddish is the language of its operations.
• The JPL hosts Yiddish comedian and author, Sholem Aleikhem (upon whose stories Fiddler on the Roof is based).
• Passionate audiences gather at the Princess Theatre at 480 Sainte-Catherine Street West for a chance to meet him.

3rd Home: JPL moves to 951 rue Saint-Urbain

• The JPL moves to 951 rue Saint-Urbain, where it remains until 1921.
• It is located at the heart of the Jewish community, just down the street from Bialik Jewish day school on rue Saint Urbain.

4th Home: JPL moves to 1131 rue Saint-Urbain

• The JPL moves into a building at 1131 rue Saint-Urbain (now 4115 rue Saint-Urbain).

5th Home: JPL moves to 4099 Esplanade Ave.

• The JPL moves into a converted house at 4099 Esplanade Avenue across from Fletcher’s Field (Parc Jeanne Mance).
• June 15, 1930 marks the opening day.
• It remains in this location for over twenty years.

• In 1933, the Board of the Jewish Public Library consists of men and women, young and old, from varying linguistic, religious, and cultural backgrounds.

Montreal Jewish Book Month launches

• The JPL launches Montreal’s Jewish Book Month, one of its flagship cultural activities.
• In collaboration with other organizations, the festival hosts conferences, book launches, and film screenings in multiple languages.
• Celebrated past speakers include Saul Bellow, Amos Oz, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Mordecai Richler, Chaïm Potok, Irving Layton, Naïm Kattan, Leonard Cohen, Michel Tremblay, Yves Beauchemin, Tatiana de Rosnay, Heather O’Neill, and Margaret Atwood.

Capital campaign for a permanent home

• A capital campaign is launched for the construction of JPL’s own building.
• Thanks to the dedication of its members, construction begins in 1952.

Free courses through YIFO

• The university component of the Library, YIFO, offers free courses for all.
• Course offerings range from French language to Jewish Philosophy to Canadian history and economics, to art appreciation.
• Nobel-nominated and renowned Canadian poet Irving Layton is among its teachers of the English language.

Name change to Jewish Public Library; Naturman Children's Library established

• On December 13, 1951, a "Supplementary Letter Patent" is filed with the Quebec provincial government which changes the Library's name from Jewish Peoples' Library to Jewish Public Library.
• One reason given is that the (former) name does not communicate the Library's intention to serve as a library to the entire community and not only to the Jewish people.
• A donation from the Naturman family sees a newly created Mr. and Mrs. Naturman Children's Library.

6th Home: JPL moves to 4499 Esplanade Ave.

• Designed by Harry Mayerovitch, a local architect and artist, this is the Library's first bespoke building.
• The role of the Library as a cultural centre is reflected in the inclusion of an auditorium, gallery and meeting spaces, a music room, and an art room.
• At the heart of the building, two stones commemorate past and future -- a fragment from the Tłomackie synagogue in Warsaw, destroyed during the Holocaust, and another from Mount Zion.
• On October 4, 1953, crowds attend a dedication ceremony and laying of the cornerstone for the new JPL building located at 4499 Esplanade Ave.
• The program includes speakers such as Samuel Bronfman and writer Jean Bruchési, an exhibit of Jewish art, and lectures on history, Jewish music, and poetry.

Bronfman Jewish Canadiana Collection is launched

• The Bronfman Jewish Canadiana Collection is initiated in the early 1950s under the directorship of David Rome and funded by Samuel Bronfman.
• It is a one-of-a-kind collection of ephemera depicting Jews and Judaism in Canada through press clippings, pamphlets, articles, small monographs, and chapbooks.
• The collection is first overseen by Reference Librarian Ron Finegold and is compiled by JPL librarians and technicians.

7th Home: JPL moves to 5253 Decarie Blvd.

• In 1967, the JPL temporarily relocates to 5253 Decarie Boulevard after selling its building at 4499 Esplanade Ave. in 1966.
• The move parallels the urban mobility patterns of the Jewish community moving away from the Main and towards the Cote-des-Neiges and Snowdon areas.

Jacob Isaac Segal awards are established

• The Jacob Isaac Segal Awards are initiated in 1968 to honour the exploration of Jewish themes in literature.
• The Awards are made possible by the J.I. Segal Fund for Jewish Culture, founded by the late Dr. Hirsh Rosenfeld and Mrs. Dvorah Rosenfeld in 1967 to honour the great Yiddish-Canadian poet, J.I. Segal and to foster Jewish cultural creativity in Canada.
• It is a flagship project of the JPL that continues to this day.

8th Home: JPL moves to 5151 Cote St. Catherines

• JPL joins the plan to centralize Jewish agencies into one hub led by Allied Jewish Community Services (AJCS).
• On October 14, 1973, the JPL celebrates the official opening of its new home at Cummings House, 5151 Cote St. Catherine Road.
• It spans the whole ground floor and parts of the lower level. Its facilities include a large auditorium, book collections, closed stacks, archives, and a children's library.

Expanding the children's library

• The JPL collection expands thanks to donations of books from the Oscar Faerman Library and the Children's Library of the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada housed at the Young Men's-Young Women's Hebrew Association.
• The reinvigorated children's library arouses such enthusiasm that the JPL opens its doors weeks before the official scheduled date.

The Norman Berman Children's Library (NBCL) gets named

• By 1920 more than 10% of the JPL's circulating collection are children's books.
• In 1981, the children's library is renamed the Norman Berman Children's Library (NBCL) in memory of Norman Berman.
• The NBCL offers children and their families books in five languages: English, French, Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian.

Introduction of original Yiddish audio books

• In the early 1980s, Felix Lazarus spearheads a project to make JPL's Yiddish books accessible to sight-impaired patrons.
• Native Yiddish speakers from Montreal – including JPL board members, volunteers, and staff members – are solicited to read canonical works of Yiddish literature. Henry Rabin records them in a make-shift studio on the lower level of the Library.
• The collection is affectionately titled the Henry Rabin Yiddish Talking Books Collection.
• Thanks to a digitization collaboration, they are available online through the Yiddish Book Centre.

The JPL Archives are founded

• While the Library has been involved in the acquisition of archives since its inception, 1984 marks the year in which the Archives department is formally established.
• Executive Director Zipporah Dunsky Shnay, President Anna Gonshor, and Archivist Golda Cukier honour the benchmark as part of JPL's 70th anniversary.
• A reported 18 fonds are processed, including the archival records of J.I. Segal, Rochl Korn, and Reuben Brainin.

Multimedia Centre

• The Jonathan and Elyce Joy Berman Multimedia Centre is established in 1997 to help connect visitors to the still-new World Wide Web.
• The Centre serves approximately 6,000 users who otherwise would not have access to computers and the Internet.
• Thanks to new computer donations, computers are now an integrated part of the Library's floors.

100th Anniversary celebration

• In 2014, the JPL celebrates its 100th anniversary.
• It is featured in a comprehensive exhibition called, 'Stories Told; 100 Years of the Jewish Public Library,' held at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BANQ).
• Thanks to generous donations, new programs are launched such as the Peter and Ellen Jacobs Virtual Archives initiative, the online curatorial platform, 'JPL Presents,' the Sonia & David Oberman JPL Archives Internship Fund, the Dr. Michael D. Paul Rare Book Initiative, the NBCL Haim Kotler Genius Lab, critical collections support, as well as varied cultural programs.

Increase of Russian books for new young readers

• In 2016, the JPL creates a Russian Children's Literature Collection to serve this growing demographic of the Library's membership.

A Pivot to Remote access

• The global outbreak of COVID leads to the shutting down of in-house services and pivoting to other access models.
• The Libraryexpands its Books on Wheels program wherein volunteers bring book orders to home-bound patrons.
• Circulation staff offer pick-up services to mobile patrons who are met at the door with their book orders.
• Senior Library Director, Eddie Paul, takes his Rare Book Workshops and other programs online for the first time to new global audiences. It sets up a precedent for remote and hybrid events to follow.

Renovation of the JPL Main Floor & Circulation

• Thanks to generous gifts from the Maurice Pollack Foundation, the Schwartz Family, the Alvin Segal Family Foundation, Harvey Elman and the Clematic Foundation, the library renovates its main entrance.
• Seen through the eyes of interior designer, Mia Swartzman, new features include an updated circulation counter and dedicated museum-quality cases for archival exhibits.

The Digital Transformation of the Archives

• Kimberley Tepperman, Director of Development, and Maya Pasternak, Director of Archives, receive the largest grant in the JPL's history to launch the "Digital Transformation of the JPL Archives."
• The Azrieli Foundation grant funds a 5% reduction in the archives backlog annually, a migration to industry-standard software, improved reference services, audio-video digitization, new translations, development of a new website, and an outreach team led by Eddie Paul.
• An extension for a fourth year in 2025 brings the total grant amount to $1,338,000.