The National Library of Israel

The National Library of Israel, HaSifria HaLeumit, is the library dedicated to collecting the cultural treasures of Israel and of Jewish heritage. The library owns the world's largest collections of Hebraica and Judaica, and is the repository of many rare and unique books, historical newspapers, ancient manuscripts, a unique collection of antique maps, periodicals, posters, photographs, and a very large and important collection of Jewish and Israeli music. In October 2023 it opened its doors in a new state-of-the-art complex, located in Jerusalem's Government Quarter, triangulating with the Israel Museum and the Knesset, Israel's parliament. The grand opening events planned for the week of the 22nd October were cancelled due to the Hamas war on Israel. Mister Handmade in Israel and I joined a tour of the building in June 2024.

The National Library of Israel began in 1892 when B'nai Brith (a Jewish organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people around the globe) opened the first public library on B'nai Brith street in Jerusalem. 

In 1920, when plans were drawn up for the Hebrew University, the B'nai Brith collection became the basis for a university library. The books were moved to Mount Scopus, in northeast Jerusalem, when the university opened five years later.
In May 1948, as soon as the British pulled out of Palestine, the Arabs managed to gain complete control of the road to Mount Scopus. The Hebrew University (and Hadassah Hospital) were effectively cut off from the rest of Jerusalem. Most of the library's books, which by that time included over one million, were smuggled off campus and preserved among several buildings in the city. In 1960, they were moved again to the new Jewish National and University Library building in Givat Ram.

In 2007 the library was officially recognized as The National Library of Israel and in 2014 the project for a new home for the library in Jerusalem was unveiled. The old library building at Givat Ram continued to be used till September 2023.

The new 34,000 square metres National Library building was designed by the Basel-based architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, known for international works such as the Tate Modern in London, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the National Stadium (Bird's Nest) in Beijing. The building has a distinctive curved roof shaped like an open book, and has an 11-story structure, with six floors above ground and five below. The architects, who are not Jewish, invested great energies in learning about Jerusalem, Israelis, and Jewish culture and traditions before they started the project.
Workers moved over to the new building some five million books and many more treasures. There are 200,000 books inside the main reading hall of the library. Over 2,500 rare manuscripts and books have been scanned and are available on the library's website. 
Also in the new building is a 480-seat indoor auditorium, a visitor centre, an education centre offering activities for school and community groups, a café and a book shop.
The new library was awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification, the highest rating of the most widely used green building rating system. It has solar panels, low energy/low maintenance lighting, and Israel's first below-ground "rockstore", a mechanism for storing thermal energy that significantly lowers the energy required to cool the building.

The library's archival collections include writings by great Jewish and Israeli writers, including S.Y. Agnon, the poet Rachel, Leah Goldberg, David Grossman, A.B. Yehoshua, Rabbi A.Y. Kook and others. Unique items include the Keter Damesek (Damascus Crown), a rare 1,000-year-old Torah volume, one of 12 "Crowns" preserved at the library; a manuscript containing commentaries on the Mishnah by Maimonides with his handwritten corrections; a first edition of the Babylonian Talmud; the Rothschild Haggadah; an almost 1,000-year-old Qur'an; and an 11th century handwritten copy of the Book of Healing of Islamic physician and philosopher Abu Ali Ibn Sina (known in the West as Avicenna).

A permanent exhibition gallery presents rare heritage treasures of the Jewish people and Israeli society on a rotating display, alongside items from Islam and the Middle East. We were shown around the exhibition "A Treasury of Words" and were able to take a close look at the most ancient, rare, and precious manuscripts in the National Library.
Displayed items commemorating moments from history include the first draft of "Jerusalem of Gold" by Naomi Shemer, the note found on poet and fighter Hannah Szenes on the day of her execution by Nazi firing squad, and a letter sent as a young man by Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, to Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz and his response.

The climatized warehouse where an additional 50,000 books are stored. The lowered oxygen level protects against fire. One of four robots can fetch any pre-ordered book and get it to the reader within 10 minutes.

The library's mission is to secure copies of all material published in Israel, in any language; all publications on the subject of Israel, the Land of Israel, Judaism and the Jewish people, published in any language, in any country in the world; and all material published in Hebrew or any of the languages spoken in the Jewish Diaspora (such as Yiddish and Ladino). By law, two copies of all printed matter published in Israel must be deposited in the National Library. In 2001, the law was amended to include audio and video recordings, and other non-print media.

In November 2023 a new exhibit was put together at the library to help people around the world realize that the hostages held in Gaza are human beings, not just numbers and faces on a poster. The exhibit, above, is called "Every Hostage Has a Story". Many dozens of black chairs have been placed in the middle of the library's new reading hall. Each chair has a picture of one of the hostages placed on it. Beside these black chairs is a smaller, colourful chair for 4-year-old Ariel Bibas and a baby chair for his brother Kfir, who turned one while being held captive in Gaza. Each chair also has a book placed on it that was chosen specifically for each hostage, along with a personal library card, each one marked with a return date - NOW.
The books await the hostages return.

The library is enhanced by extensive outdoor gardens and artworks including two works by Marc Chagall; two works by British artist Edmund de Waal; and a monumental stone sculpture, "Letters of Light," by Israel Prize laureate Micha Ullman.

Edmund de Waal, a multi-media artist and author of the best-seller, The Hare with Amber Eyes, arranges his porcelain vessels around mutual themes of literature and music. Of the two works displayed at the library, Psalm IV, 2019, above, reflects the form of a page of the Talmud printed in the early 16th century by Daniel Bomberg of Venice. It is a tribute to the rich Hebrew heritage that emerged in the Italian diaspora, in parallel with the creation of the first Jewish ghetto. The title of the work - Psalm - echoes the well-known lamentation of the biblical exiles: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept..." (Psalm 137 of the Book of Psalms). The second work by de Waal graces the entrance of the library synagogue.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) and My Corner of the World.