Whenever someone in Israel, China or Guatemala borrows a book from the public library, they may have Sidney Kluger to thank.
Kluger, a former executive director of Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco and founder of Book Bank USA, which collected books for public libraries and schools around the world, died Saturday, July 29. He was 93.
Kluger was born in New York City on Oct. 29, 1912. His father was an immigrant from Hungary and owned a few candy shops.
Kluger attended the City University of New York and earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Oregon. He also did some graduate work at Columbia University and in Mexico City.
As a young man he moved to Mexico City. While there, he started a publishing company and got involved with the International Rescue Committee arranging exit visas for Jews in Nazi-occupied France.
The Holocaust had a profound effect on him, said his son, Andrew Kluger of San Rafael, and it motivated all of his activism on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people.
In 1945, he became executive director of the Latin-American League for a Free Palestine, and publisher of its journal, La Repuesta (“The Answer”), which he produced until Israel was founded in 1948.
That was also the year he married Chicago native Mildred Gerber.
For the next four years he served as executive director of the Centro Deportivo Israelita, a 20,000-member community and sports center in Mexico City, the largest Jewish center of its kind in the world.
Sherith Israel’s cantor at the time, Martin Feldman, met Kluger in Mexico City, told him about the job opening at the San Francisco synagogue and invited him to apply.
In 1963, he came back to the United States and served the San Francisco congregation for the next 15 years.
Feldman recalled how Kluger planned the first Israel trade fair at Sherith Israel, which attracted approximately 10,000 people.
“He left his mark on the synagogue,” said Feldman. “He was well respected and honored by the Jewish community at large, not only the temple, because his interests were so varied. He had his fingers in everything.”
Kluger was also among the founders of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jewry. Calling him one of the “spark plugs” behind it, Seymour Fromer, director emeritus of Berkeley’s Judah L. Magnes Museum, said, “He contributed a great deal to making San Francisco one of the centers of the Soviet Jewry movement.”
Kluger was also active in Hadassah Associates, the men’s division of the women’s organization, and served as president of B’nai B’rith, as well as president of the Northern California board of Boys Town Jerusalem. In 1982, that organization honored him by naming a sports stadium in Kiryat Shemona after Kluger.
But most of his volunteer hours were spent on Book Bank USA, an organization that he began in 1966 to stock public libraries around the world.
“He didn’t just run it as an organization, he did the work himself,” said Fromer. “The books took over his whole garage. He had them laid out and sorted, and he packed them and took them to the post office, and raised the money for the shipping. He not only had to raise money for shipping and packing, but he got no pay.”
Kluger recruited many well-known authors and celebrities such as Saul Bellow, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Pearl Buck to serve on his advisory board.
In over four years of existence, Book Bank USA distributed an estimated 4 million books to schools and libraries in 23 countries. While Kluger began with public libraries in Israel, he later branched out to numerous other countries.
In 1968, Book Bank USA donated a bookmobile to the newly reunited Jerusalem, which then-Mayor Teddy Kollek said would help bridge the divide between the city’s Jewish and Arab residents.
In 1985, Congressman Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) introduced a tribute to Kluger in Congress.
In addition to his son Andrew, Kluger is survived by his wife, Mildred, of San Francisco; daughter Rochelle Schwartz of San Diego; daughter Debbie Zuberi of Har Adar, Israel, and eight grandchildren.
Donations can be made to Hadassah, 1715 Oak St., San Francisco, CA 94109, or Book Bank USA, 70 Mitchell Blvd., Suite 202, San Rafael, CA 94903.