Biblioteca Fondazione CDEC

The Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea CDEC is an independent Institute for Italian Jewish History and Culture. It was founded in Venice in 1955 by the Federation of Italian Jewish Youth, in celebration of the ten-year anniversary of the liberation of Italy, the fall of the Fascist government of the Italian Social Republic, and the end of Nazi occupation. According to its first by-laws, the aim of the CDEC was"to seek out and collect documents relating to the persecution of Jews in Italy and the Jewish contribution to the Resistanc" and to disseminate them. In 1986, the CDEC had grown significantly and was established as the Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center Foundation - CDEC (CDEC Foundation). As of 2022, the Cdec Foundation is located in Edmond J. Safra Square inside the Shoah Memorial of Milan. 

The CDEC Foundation library specializes in works on Jewish history, thought, literature and art. Born with the foundation of the CDEC in 1955, the first materials preserved came from the private libraries of its founders, their friends and the members of the Italian Jewish community. Its heritage has been enriched over time, progressively expanding thanks to purchases and donations, and today the library preserves more than 34,000 books, which can be borrowed or consulted on the premises of the Foundation. The library also owns 700 dissertations, a collection of posters and about 2,000 periodicals, Jewish and non-Jewish, which form the Foundation's newspaper library. The publications preserved are mainly in Italian, Hebrew, French and English, but the library also owns a fund, unique in Italy, of 300 books in Yiddish. 

Biblioteca Fondazione CDEC 

Our OPAC can be accessed here: https://cdec.infoteca.it/ricerca Librarians are available to help users find the books and articles they need 

Collection of books, booklets and periodicals 

The CDEC library specializes in Jewish history, particularly in WWII and Shoah related topics, in all forms of Jewish culture, religion, tradition, art, biography and memoirs, in antisemitism, and in literature written by Jews, whether or not related to Jewish topics. In addition to dealing with the conservation and dissemination of the heritage it holds, the Foundation's library periodically organizes book presentations and cultural events. 

The library is open from Monday to Thursday from 10.00 to 17.30, and on Sunday from 10.00 to 16.00. The library is accessible to wheelchair users. There are 48 seats, some of which with the possibility of consulting computer catalogues, and users are invited to both study our books, periodicals and other materials as well as carrying on their own activities. To study in our library is not necessary to make an appointment, but all first-time users are required to register. To consult the periodicals it is necessary to send an email in advance, as they are stored in a separate building. 

It is possible to make photocopies and scans of our materials