Imagine stepping into a warm, quiet library on a freezing Minnesota morning, clutching a children’s picture book in a language you barely understand. That is the brave scene that has played out at this historic Minneapolis library for over a century.
A Tudor Revival landmark built with Carnegie money in 1915, its earliest patrons were Jewish immigrants fleeing Eastern Europe. The city moved its entire collection of Yiddish and Hebrew books to this branch to serve them.
Today, the same quiet rooms welcome newcomers from Somalia, Laos, Mexico, Ethiopia, and Vietnam…