A report on the National Library of Israel - Summer 2025
A report on the National Library of Israel
Summer 2025
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Dear friends, Matchless collections, a rich array of cultural and educational initiatives and partnerships, professional collaborations, innovative digital programs, an iconic new home in Jerusalem – this is the National Library of Israel of the 21st century. The renewed National Library of Israel (NLI) ensures that Israelis, Jews, and citizens of the world can be enriched and inspired by the Library and its treasures like never before. In fall 2023, the National Library of Israel (NLI) was focused on completing construction of our new building and campus, moving the entirety of NLI’s staff and collections, and preparing for the opening festivities. The horrific events of October 7th prompted an immediate pivot in terms of plans and priorities. Since then, in the shadow of terror and war, the Library has mobilized to help the people of Israel and the Jewish people through this painful period in our nation’s history. NLI has proven to be a source of inspiration and model of resilience, working to fortify the spirit of those most impacted by the war, as well as to strengthen all of Israel’s people and Jewish communities worldwide. The Library has also assumed heightened importance as the leader of the Bearing Witness project—a national and international initiative to comprehensively document October 7th and its aftermath. Bearing Witness constitutes a crucial repository of historical records, cultural artifacts, and narratives - essential today and in the long-term for understanding this tumultuous period and the ways it will continue to reverberate through the region and the world. The October 2023 opening of the new Library building, the product of a 15-year process of renewal, introduced exciting opportunities for expanding our reach and developing in new directions. The Library’s unprecedented public presence and role is an affirmation of its enduring mission: When Israel feels divided, in a year when we have been torn apart by terror, loss, and war, we need unifying institutions like NLI more than ever. It is our honor and privilege, especially this year, to serve as the National Library of the people of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide, in all their diversity. Though the war continues and NLI is prioritizing addressing its attendant challenges, we are investing in charting a course for the future, to ensure NLI remains a center of excellence, scholarship, inclusion, and inspiration. We are grateful to have you as partners on this journey.
With wishes for peaceful days ahead and the full and safe return home of Israel’s hostages, civilians, and soldiers,
Sallai Meridor
Oren Weinberg
Chairman of the Board
Chief Executive Officer
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”
"Here, in this
remarkable place,
we reclaim the idea
that knowledge is sacred.
That libraries are not merely buildings – they are sanctuaries, compasses, and bridges across time… When a library is built, it sends a message to the world: we believe in the future."
”
Dame Hannah Rothschild DBE CBE Chair of Yad Hanadiv and lead partner in the renewal of the National Library of Israel
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The Ilona and Hugo Lowy Reading Halls. Photo: Uri Bareket
Words of Comfort Home, Memory, Healing, Resilience, Unity, Hope, Renewal
Just as the written word shapes our understanding of history and culture, it also serves as a powerful bridge connecting individuals and communities across time and space. As we entered the Hebrew year 5785, while still in the midst of one of the most challenging periods our nation has ever faced, the National Library of Israel launched the Words of Comfort project that invited thought leaders to reflect upon words that resonated throughout the year. Their essays help us draw comfort from the words that connect and inspire us. These words also gave us a framework for reflecting on the inaugural year of the new National Library of Israel campus, a year of tremendous challenges and of remarkable achievement and growth.
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"To build this Home of the Book dedicated to People of that Book is a project that could bring blessing not just to Israel, and not just to the Jewish people worldwide, but to the entire world ." ” ”
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l
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The National Library of Israel, view from Ruppin Blvd. Photo: Stav Tsur
Opening in the shadow of war On October 8, 2023 NLI leadership announced, with deep sadness, the postponement of the celebratory opening events of the new National Library of Israel campus that were scheduled to begin on October 17th. However, NLI made the decision to open the doors of the new building on October 29th, in the shadow of war. Ever since, the Library has been filled with hope and life. NLI is packed every day with readers, students, teachers, soldiers, visitors, and scholars, who come to see and be inspired by our treasures and our magnificent new building and to be comforted by the quiet refuge it offers. Opening our new home was a declaration and a commitment by the National Library of Israel to always be a home and haven for scholarship, heritage, knowledge, community, and culture.
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600 seats in the Ilona and Hugo Lowy Reading Halls
270,000 stones in NLI’s Rock Store
Our New Home 46,000 square meters ( 480,000 square feet)
for natural cooling (1 of 4 in the world)
21 study rooms
220,000 volumes in open stacks in the reading halls
94,800 digitized Hebrew-letter manuscripts (12,000,000 images) in Ktiv, the International Collection of Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts
13,000,000 digital pages of historical Jewish press and contemporary press 300,000 digitized pages of historic Ottoman and British Mandate era press
NLI Collections 5 core collections: Israel, Islam and the Middle East, Humanities, Music, and the Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Collection 4,500,000 books, manuscripts, periodicals, and other items
2,700 Arabic-letter manuscripts 1,600
120,000 hours of Jewish and Israeli music available online – the world’s largest collection
personal archives of leading Jewish and Israeli figures 2,500,000 files in NLI's Archive Network Israel 14,200 original and digital maps, with special focus on ancient and modern Israel - the largest collection of its kind
2,500,000 digitized photographs
500 million internet items (43 TB), 2 million files in various formats, over 1000 publications and ephemera items in the Bearing Witness Archive within the first year
16,000 Hebrew-letter manuscripts
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Professor Yehudah Mirsky
Spotlight
In the Bible, the area of the Mikdash (the ancient Holy Temple) is sometimes referred to as Eretz Hachaim, the Land of Life - because you are connected to God but also because you are connected to the Jewish people – past, present, and future. And that connection is the Bible's vision of the meaning of immortality. I'm one of those who spent years in the old Library, who loved it, as a kind of only-in-Jerusalem Beit Midrash , legendary scholars sitting next to high school kids, Haredim and non-Jewish scholars, all together, juxtapositions that were moving and comical all at once. Like many old timers, I was kvetchy and crochety about the new building. Who needs it? The first thing to tell me that I was wrong about that was seeing the throngs of young people, men and women, students and soldiers, Jews and non-Jews, secular and religious, making the new Library their regular venue for study and learning. And then, over time, I began to feel what I briefly described above. That in this beautiful, august, inspiring, yet deeply comforting structure, at once pulsating with more ideas than you can imagine and yet so quiet that you can actually sit and think, there's a current of something deeply and truly alive. When I'm in the Library building, I really feel like I am in the best way dissolving into all of Jewish history and body and spirit like a drop in an ocean.
Professor Yehudah Mirsky is a scholar of Jewish Thought and an established reader at the National Library of Israel
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”
"How will
we remember
this devastating period? What stories will we tell in years to come? How will we memorialize this loss?"
”
Sally Berkovic Author and CEO of the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe
(excerpted from Words of Comfort)
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President and Michal Herzog at the NI Memorial Wall. Photo: Kobi Gideon GPO
Bearing Witness The National Library of Israel is leading the Bearing Witness project, a comprehensive, long-term national and international initiative to document the events of October 7th and their aftermath, by collecting materials in cooperation with the myriad organizations, individuals, communities, and grassroots initiatives involved in documentation efforts, and bringing them together in a centralized NLI platform. Given NLI’s expertise in organizing, cataloging, meta-tagging, and long-term storage and preservation of materials, the Library coordinates the collection of audio and video recordings, posts, memes, photographs, chats, media coverage, and more. Bearing Witness also includes a focus on documenting antisemitism and activism worldwide and specifically the Jewish experience on North American college campuses.
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JPress: The Historical Jewish Press Project
The Jewish press, in its many languages, is an invaluable source of information on the history and culture of world Jewry and on the countries and regions of Jews' residence in the modern era. NLI’s flagship Historical Jewish Press (JPress) project allows researchers to search the entire archive of all the published text of a given newspaper. JPress hopes to make available online the majority of Jewish newspapers and journals published throughout history, including extremely rare newspapers to which access had been previously impossible. The site includes hundreds of newspapers in 25 languages, published in numerous periods and places over the course of 240 years.
This website's initiators, Tel Aviv University and the National Library of Israel, invite additional partners and contributors to join in this project.
Preserving Ethiopian heritage at the Library
NLI, in partnership with the Ethiopian Jewry Heritage Center and the Orit Guardians program at Tel Aviv University, in October 2024 proudly announced a new digitization project to scan and make available the rare holy books and manuscripts of the Beta Israel community. Until now, most of these items were held by the community’s Kesim (clergy) in private homes or Beta Israel synagogues and remained inaccessible to the public.
The manuscripts are written in the sacred language of Ge'ez and include the Octateuch known as the Orit (the Torah of Beta Israel comprising the five books of the Torah and the books of Joshua, Judges and Ruth), the Jewish apocryphal texts of Jubilees and Enoch, prayerbooks such as the Book of Psalms, holy books held by descendants of Kesim, and more.
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Dafna Siegman
Spotlight
When you speak to Dafna Siegman, an expert senior guide at the National Library of Israel, her enthusiasm is palpable. She shares that the Library touches every visitor who enters the building, whether on an aesthetic, intellectual, or emotional level – or all of the above. Dafna describes the poignancy she felt when hosting a group of members of communities from the Gaza envelope, as they stood in absolute silence, overwhelmed, beside the Library’s installation of empty chairs for the hostages, acknowledging the exactness of the books that were chosen for their dearest friends. They were moved to share their experiences, and in turn, expressed gratitude that the stories from October 7th had already become an integral part of the story of the National Library of Israel and of the nation as a whole. “The Library’s message that your story is our story becomes all the more significant on the tour and leaves each visitor feeling that they want to visit again and again.”
Dafna Siegman is an NLI Judaica specialist and NLI tour guide
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”
"May the year ahead be
a year…
in which,
as a nation, we find the strength to begin the journey of tempering and healing."
”
Dr. Chaim Neria NLI Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Collection Curator
(excerpted from Words of Comfort)
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A Treasury of Words, NLI’s permanent exhibition Photo: Uri Bareket
The NLI visitor experience Each day, the Library overflows with readers and visitors; the Ilona and Hugo Lowy Reading Halls are filled to capacity, and our daily tours are sold out. Visitors to NLI’s Younes and Soraya Nazarian Experiential Center are immersed in an audio-visual experience on a full- wall LED screen that, in resting mode, is a memorial wall for all of the fallen of Israel on and since October 7th. Library tours highlight the NLI permanent exhibition, A Treasury of Words (in the William Davidson Permanent Exhibition Gallery) and special exhibitions (in the Helen Diller Family Rotating Exhibitions Gallery and Djanogly Gallery).
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The inaugural exhibition, Encounters of Beauty: Hebrew Manuscripts from the Braginsky Collection and the National Library of Israel was open from April until September 2024; and in December 2024, NLI opened Kafka: Metamorphosis of an Author, marking 100 years since Franz Kafka’s death and showcasing singular archival items from NLI's world-leading Kafka collection.
Exhibitions planned for 2025 include: A Journey to the Hajj; Flowers: Leafing Through the Collections of the National Library; and Hadassa Goldvicht: To the Internal Libraries.
Time and time again, visitors have expressed that the Library is a place where they can breathe, heal, let down their guard, and take refuge from the turbulence of the outside world.
Activities and Reach Over 550,000 people visited and made use of the Library in 2024
7,500 educators trained through
17,500 participants in 2024 summer cultural programs
3,600 tour groups through the Visitor Center (2024)
the Israel National Center for Humanities Education (2023-24)
18,000 school students in humanities enrichment and reading programs (2023-2024)
280,000 visitors in 2024 through the Visitor Center
50 guides in various languages
Library Services
190,000 queries handled in 2024, of which 70,000 were reference queries
135,000 registered readers 200,000 books and materials ordered from the stacks (2024)
240,000 readers in the reading halls (2024)
400 staff members
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Benjamin Losice
Spotlight
At the start of operations in Gaza, before we understood how long the fighting would last, our crew sat in our tank, trying to pass the time. We went around sharing what we missed most from our regular lives. One of the guys asked, “What’s the first thing you want to do when you get back home?” One reply immediately came to mind, and I answered, “I want to visit the new National Library.” Unsurprisingly, everyone in the tank burst out laughing... As a Jerusalemite, I had the privilege of following the building and establishment of the new Library building over the past few years. I eagerly awaited the opening day and the chance to experience it in all its glory. Since completing my tour in Gaza and during the rare breaks I’ve had between reserve duty rotations, the Library has become a place of peace and comfort for me. A place where I can disconnect from the chaos in the outside world, immerse myself in books and learning, and recharge my energies.
Staff Sergeant (Reserves) Benjamin Losice served as a Tank Commander in the Operation Iron Swords War.
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”
The idea of
super-resilience has been core to Israel’s identity… If people converge on books even during wartime, it is a sign that the Jewish people have not forgotten to prioritize what has long been central to their identity. A thriving culture links the past and present to ensure a better future.
”
David Makovsky President, NLI USA
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Summer concert for families. Photo: Hanna Taieb
Docu.Text 09: NLI’s Documentary Film Festival
The Docu.Text Film Festival, one of NLI's flagship cultural programs and a highpoint of the Jerusalem summer calendar, took place August 18-22, 2024, with the support of Bat Shlomo Vineyards, and reached new heights in NLI’s new home. Now in its ninth year, the festival included international and local premieres in NLI's David Geffen Auditorium, the open-air Idan and Batia Ofer Park, and other Library spaces. Audiences from throughout Israel (over 7000 people in total) took part in 25 film screenings, as well as conversations with filmmakers, lectures, workshops, and more.
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Fellowship programs
The Stewart and Lynda Resnick Fellowship Program at the National Library of Israel launched over the summer of 2024 and was a resounding success, with two outstanding inaugural fellows whose projects were specifically grounded in the Library's collections. Pardes, the Literary Incubator at the National Library of Israel, ran its seventh residency program from December 2023-July 2024 with the participation of four up-and-coming Israeli authors.
The Natan Sharansky archive
In the Soviet Union in the 1970s, it was almost impossible to publicly express interest in Judaism and Jewish culture or study Hebrew. Jewish activists looked for places to gather where, far from the eyes of the authorities, they could learn Hebrew and share information about Jewish culture. One of these places was a large forest clearing near the Ovrazhki train station, thirty kilometers out of Moscow, where Jewish
activists, including Natan Sharansky (b. 1948), gathered to celebrate Jewish holidays, hold underground photo exhibitions and music festivals, and study Hebrew together. The Ovrazhki birch grove became the unofficial symbol of the 1970s Jewish revival in the Soviet Union. Natan Sharansky’s personal archives, covering the struggle of the Prisoners of Zion and the events leading to Sharansky’s release from prison, are a treasured part of the Library’s collection.
(Excerpted from 101 Treasures from the National Library of Israel )
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Avigail Antman
Spotlight
Within weeks of October 7, 2023, NLI Bustan Poetry Incubator alumna Avigail Antman was busy creating something new: she and her colleague, clinical psychologist Ayelet Wieder Cohen, wanted to support Israel’s “helping professionals” – psychologists, counselors, doctors, and therapists of all types – who were bearing witness to people’s experiences, all while contending with their own grief and trauma. She felt the key to this could be working with words. Avigail reached out to Tsila Hayun, Head of Culture and Visitors at the Library, and NLI’s Ararat: The Resilience of the Spirit was thus born. “Mount Ararat is where Noah’s ark landed after the flood,” Avigail explains. “It evokes the idea that in the midst of catastrophe we have an ark, a place to sit for a minute to rest, a place from which to draw strength to go on.” Ararat empowers participants by engaging them with the Library’s incredible collection of Jewish texts from throughout the ages. “To bear witness to resilience in the face of terrible tragedies is to be inspired by our human capacity for creativity.” For participants like the officer whose nephew was killed in action, the doctor tasked with notifying the families of fallen soldiers, the parent whose child is among the hostages, the mother with five children fighting in the war -- “to feel you have a community is so important.” Right now, Avigail says, “What the soul craves is to be home, to breathe fresh air. Words are air. The National Library is a home.”
Avigail Antman is a poet, an alumna of NLI’s Bustan Poetry Incubator, and co-founder of Ararat: The Resilience of the Spirit
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”
"The National Library of Israel is a gem - a resource for people from the four corners of the world who are interested in the history of Israel and of Jewish communities everywhere. With digitization and our ability to connect virtually, I see the Library as a cultural and educational destination…where people from diverse backgrounds will come together to better understand their own traditions and learn more about each other."
”
The Honorable Jacob Lew US ambassador to Israel (2023-25) and Past President NLI USA
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Rachel Sharansky Danziger and the Hon. Jacob Lew, The Sacks Conversation at the National Library of Israel. Photo: David Azagury, U.S. Embassy
Library of the Jewish people initiative The National Library of Israel has launched a new strategic planning process aimed at strengthening its role as the Library of the Jewish people worldwide. Under the leadership of Sallai Meridor and the Board of Directors, this initiative seeks to enhance the Library’s global engagement and impact and to open access to and understanding of our shared heritage by growing digital and physical collections - reinforcing our mission to serve as a cultural and intellectual hub for Jews everywhere. Educational, cultural, and professional collaborations —like the Gesher L’Europa program and NLI USA’s initiatives— are central to this vision. The Library’s new strategic plan, expected by the end of 2025, will focus on preserving Jewish stories and strengthening Jewish identity worldwide. NLI is set to play a vital leadership role in ensuring that the history and future of the Jewish people, worldwide, are safeguarded and celebrated in new, innovative, and engaging ways.
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Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks personal archive The Rabbi Sacks Legacy and the National Library of Israel announced the arrival of the personal archive of the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks to the Library in April 2024, with support from the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe. NLI received some 50 cartons of archival material, which are being cataloged and made accessible to researchers. On the heels of this, the 4th annual Sacks Conversation, honoring the legacy of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and his enduring impact as a global and unifying moral voice, took place in November 2024 at the Library and culminated in an evening conversation between US Ambassador to Israel Jacob J. Lew and Jerusalem-born writer and educator Rachel Sharansky Danziger. A video recording of the event is available here.
Riwaq: A Day of Bedouin Culture at the National Library of Israel
To preserve precious evidence of Bedouin dialects, oral history, law, material culture, and daily life that would otherwise be lost, NLI has, over several years, acquired a number of important archives documenting Bedouin history, culture, and society in southern Israel, the Sinai Peninsula, and Jordan, such as that of Clinton Bailey z”l, who passed away in January 2025. Riwaq: A Day of Bedouin Culture at the National Library of Israel shined a spotlight on these collections, all available digitally. A symposium on the theme of documenting and preserving Bedouin culture in times of change attracted residents of the Bedouin city of Rahat, scholars, and other attendees from the Bedouin community and beyond, and culminated in a performance of Bedouin music and a contemporary dance piece, “Rahat-Jerusalem.” This program was supported by the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the Hanns Seidel Foundation, and Sally Gottesman, and was a joint project with the Rahat Municipality, the Rahat Cultural Center, and the Arabic Language and Literature Department at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Affirming the Diaspora: The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
Glikl of Hameln (1645–1724) is best known as the author of a highly personal, Yiddish-language diary that offers a rare and intimate look into the life of an early modern European Jewish woman. Only one example of her handwriting survives: her declaration and signature in a ledger listing donations to the Jewish communities in the Land of Israel. The ledger, along with millions of other documents relating to Jewish
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communal life from around the world, is preserved in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP), a subsidiary of the National Library of Israel. While national archives usually belong to a state or polity, the CAHJP, established in 1939, is unique in serving as a national archive of the Jewish people scattered around the world. It contains approximately sixty million original pages of archival materials and another twenty-five million pages of copies of originals held elsewhere. The CAHJP was founded by Zionist leaders who believed that a proper understanding of Jewish history, including the new Zionist project, depended on gathering information about world Jewry in one place.
(Excerpted from 101 Treasures from the National Library of Israel )
NLI USA
Spotlight
NLI USA’s board and staff work closely with the National Library of Israel to expand its impact by engaging individuals, communities, institutions, and organizations throughout the U.S., furthering access to the Library’s vast resources, and deepening relationships with partners and supporters. Virtual programming has been pivotal in broadening the Library’s reach, with audiences ranging from 300-1400 gathering online. 2023-24 program highlights include An Insider’s View of the National Library of Israel During Wartime with NLI senior staff and The Language of War: Lost in Translation, in cooperation with the Sami Rohr Prize, exploring how the war has influenced the craft of writing. NLI USA also offered in-person experiences around Crossroads and Connections, a traveling exhibition of images of treasures from the Library’s collections that has been shown in over 20 communities around the U.S.— from Sun Valley, Idaho to Westchester, New York. To further the Library’s partnerships and to seek input on the needs of the Jewish community, NLI USA organized a roundtable of twelve leading organizations, including RootOne, The Foundation for Jewish Camps, Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, Kivunim, and Hillel International, among others. Bringing partners and participants to the Library’s Bearing Witness project has been another focus this year. With a dedicated coordinator collecting documentation of the Jewish experience on North American college campuses, NLI USA is advancing the Library’s vital work preserving the record of this transformational time post-October 7.
All of NLI USA’s work is sustained by the generosity of its growing base of donors and supporters throughout North America.
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”
The global and unrelenting antisemitism that was revealed following the catastrophic events of October 7th left many Jews speechless and traumatized. When I visited the National Library of Israel, I was filled with a renewed sense of pride and hope that had been lost in our community.
”
Educator, Seattle, Washington
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Youth in the Library’s Resnick Entrance Hall. Photo: Hanna Taieb
2024 NLI Prize for Pedagogic Excellence in honor of David Azrieli The third National Library of Israel Prize for Pedagogic Excellence in honor of David Azrieli was awarded in May 2024, at a festive ceremony at the Library. Ministry of Education officials, Library executives, Azrieli Foundation representatives, teachers, and friends attended the ceremony, along with students, who cheered as their prize-winning teachers alighted the stage. The three winners share a monetary prize, made possible as part of a five-year gift from the Azrieli Foundation for the Israel National Center for Humanities Education at NLI.
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International Judaica Curators Conference 2024
In May 2024, 70 professional curators of Judaica collections from throughout the world convened at the Library for a three-day intensive learning experience on topics ranging from the challenges posed by AI to saving endangered archives to a session on the Library’s Bearing Witness project and the benefits and obstacles in collecting digital materials in real time. The conference culminated with the presentation of a White Paper on Judaica Provenance, a joint project of NLI and the Association of Jewish Libraries, outlining best practices for a field with unique complexities. The conference’s big success was in creating a sense of community, hope, and solidarity among colleagues, particularly during this difficult year. The Well educators’ seminar A group of 16 Jewish educators from across the globe arrived in Jerusalem in August 2024 to take part in The Well, an educational seminar at the Library under the auspices of Gesher L'Europa. The Well presented Library collections and projects as primary sources for the classroom and pedagogic tools for Jewish and Israel studies. Along with hands-on activities, lectures, discussions, and workshops, the seminar included immersive experiences and opportunities to share ideas, challenges, and questions with international colleagues. Hatikva: A National Anthem Comes Home Most national anthems are not originally composed as such. This is also true of the Israeli national anthem written by Naftali Herz Imber (1856–1909), which received its status by virtue of the tremendous love and appreciation accorded to it by the Jewish people. “Tikvatenu” (“Our
Hope”) was first published in the Land of Israel in 1886 as a nine-stanza poem written in the genre of songs expressing yearning for Jerusalem. When Imber moved to the United States, he found that his (abridged) song had become the unofficial anthem of the Zionist Congress. In 1908, Imber was hospitalized in a Jewish hospital in New York. There he met Jeannette Robinson- Murphy, an American ethnomusicologist, who asked him to write down the lyrics of the only Hebrew song she knew how to sing. He took a piece of hospital stationery and jotted
down the original first two stanzas. In 1933, the eighteenth Zionist Congress declared “Hatikva” the Jewish national anthem. Three years later, Robinson-Murphy decided that the page she had received from Imber belonged in “the land of Zion, Jerusalem” and entrusted it to the National Library of Israel. This is the sole known autographed copy of “Hatikva” in the world.
(Excerpted from 101 Treasures from the National Library of Israel )
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Dr. Jacqueline Heller
Spotlight
Entering the National Library of Israel for the first time flooded me with emotion and thought. The staggering magnificence had an immediate impact that I had not previously grasped. Light poured in, illuminating spaces crafted with the finest materials—an avant-garde, astonishing architectural marvel…The environment was alive, dynamic, and welcoming. The contents, exhibits, and high-tech robotics are impressive and consistent with Israel’s modern, resilient, and innovative reputation. The energy within these walls feels balanced and harmonious…It is profoundly meaningful for me to perceive NLI as a sanctuary during Israel's time of darkness. I am grateful to be part of the effort. The overwhelming positive national response is a testament to the enduring strength and creativity of a people who transcend the weight of history.
Jacqueline Heller is a partner and friend of the National Library of Israel, who endowed the Jacqueline Heller Information Desk
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”
"In 2016, when my late husband, David S. Gottesman, spoke at the Cornerstone Dedication Ceremony of the NLI, he said his fervent hope was that the National Library of Israel will assume an essential role in promoting mutual understanding among all people - within Israel and throughout the world. His dreams for what the NLI could be have become a reality far greater than he could have imagined. He would have been so proud, and so today am I and all my family."
”
Ruth Gottesman Lead partner in the renewal of the National Library of Israel
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Photo: Dor Pazuelo
BINA: Billions of Words BINA (also known as “Billions of Words”) is an AI-driven tool for the semantic analysis of digital collections of images, photographs, ephemera, maps, archives, and more, being developed in partnership with the National Library of Israel. BINA extracts information about digitized items in NLI collections, enables advanced Natural Language Search (NLS) capabilities, suggests narratives and correlations, and allows for searches around abstract concepts. Billions of Words was a winner of the international TARBOOT competition for expanding digital use of heritage and cultural content, sponsored in 2022 by NLI and Yad Hanadiv (A Rothschild Family Foundation).
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MAZAL (Ma’agar Zehuyot Leumi/ the National Authorities Database)
MAZAL is the National Library of Israel's central database that brings together information from 32 libraries (and counting) across Israel and contains over 4.5 million records of people, places, titles of works, subjects, and more—with thousands of updates and new records added each month. By handcrafting metadata and ensuring consistency in names and topics throughout the catalog, MAZAL makes it easier to find all relevant information—even when different terms or spellings are used for the same entity. MAZAL has a higher threshold of accuracy than almost any other library system in the world, supports multiple alphabets (Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic), connects with international databases like Wikidata and VIAF, and presents clear, enriched results. The information in MAZAL also assists the Library in identifying which materials have passed out of copyright and may be opened to the public worldwide. With a new public interface as of 2024, searching the library catalogs is now more reliable, user-friendly, and precise than ever before.
Digital Access
11,600,000 website visits (2024), including nearly 800,000 visits from Arab countries (a decrease in 2024 due to security controls)
375 curated subject pages (160 Hebrew, 70 English, 145 Arabic)
250 feature stories/year in The Librarians online magazine (Hebrew/English/Arabic)
15,000 music and liturgy pages
200,000 podcast downloads
152,000 Facebook followers (Hebrew)
55,000 Facebook followers (English)
300,000 visits to NLI education website (2024)
220,000 items on Wikimedia Commons, generating 25-30m views per month
200,000 automated subject pages
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Ephrat Pomerantz
Spotlight
Fourteen years ago, when Ephrat Pomerantz was offered the job of managing the project to construct the new National Library of Israel building, she jumped at the chance. But she wasn’t under any illusions that it would be easy. The ambitious building needed to advance the Library’s mission and “translate into something functional and practical.” Accessibility – in all its forms – was the number one priority, and “we needed the different types of Library users to be able to use the same space at the same time,” Ephrat explains, with the hope that “the building would invite users to become visitors, and visitors to become users.” Though the construction and move are now officially complete, work goes on. Ephrat recently was named Head of Operations and Logistics for the Library. She notes that “the Library is an active, dynamic place. It must continue to adapt to meet emerging public needs.” For now, though, Ephrat is proud to say, NLI is meeting expectations in terms of both form and function. For proof, one need look no further than the huge numbers of visitors to the Library. “Now everyone who comes to visit Jerusalem,” Ephrat says, “wants to put the National Library on their itinerary. It’s a destination!”
Ephrat Pomerantz directed the National Library of Israel building project and now serves as NLI Head of Operations and Logistics.
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The Stewart and Lynda Resnick Entrance Plaza. Photo: Stav Tsur
Income In 2024, the National Library of Israel reported total income of 149,322,149 shekels. The year was defined by profound national and institutional challenges, foremost the outbreak of war, which deeply affected Israeli society and also led to substantial reductions in government funding for the Library. Moreover, it was our first year in the new Library building, with ongoing issues related to the move. Nevertheless, NLI maintained its financial stability and a balanced budget. The Library expresses its profound appreciation to its many friends and supporters, whose contributions to the Emergency War Campaign provided essential resources to address urgent needs. 2024 was also marked by a notable increase in self-generated income, further reinforcing the Library’s long-term financial stability. Expenditures In 2024, the Library’s expenditures reflected several strategic priorities. Chief among them was the continued development of NLI’s collections through acquisitions, partnerships, and projects. Substantial investment was also made in information systems, technology, digitization, and digital access—essential both for the long-term preservation of the Library's collections and for ensuring their accessibility to audiences in Israel and worldwide. At the same time, research, education and cultural initiatives and programs remained central to the Library’s mission of renewal, with new and expanded spaces on the NLI campus and a growing public profile driving greater demand, investment, and growth in these areas.
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Library Processes and Public Services
Management and Resource Development
Collections Acquisitions and Projects
Culture and Visitor Center
Operations and Security
Exhibitions
Human Resources
Digital Access
Library of the Jewish People, Gesher L'Europa
Information Systems, Technology, and Digitization
Professional Services
Education
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Digital Access
Collections Acquisitions and Projects
Library Processes and Public Services
Education
9,707,646 6.5%
23,614,497 15.8%
23,126,261 15.5%
30,203,370 6.6%
Culture and Visitor Center
Exhibitions
Operations and security
Information Systems, Technology, and Digitization
9,692,620 6.5%
3,191,016 2.1%
18,614,354 12.5%
30,203,370 20.2%
Professional Services
Human Resources
Management and Resource Development
Library of the Jewish People, Gesher L'Europa
6,524,877 4.4%
3,988,597 2.7%
9,210,494 6.2%
1,626,621 1.1%
Total: NIS 149,322,149
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National Library Council Prof. David Harel, Chairperson David (Dudu) Amitai
Yigal Ben Shalom Prof. Asher Cohen Prof. Simcha Emanuel Yon Feder Michal Geula Prof. Haviva Pedaya Prof. Manuel Trachtenberg
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Board of Directors, National Library of Israel Sallai Meridor, Chairman of the board Naomi Alsheikh Yarom Ariav Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten
Yair Cohen Nir Dagan Sheikh Mohanaa Fars
Dr. Tehila Kalagy Rabbi Benny Lau Ido Nehushtan
Board of Directors, NLI USA
Prof. Noam Nissan Shirli Rimon Bracha Prof. Sarit Shalev-Eyni Prof. Tamar Wolf-Monzon
David Makovsky, President Dr. David B. Agus Abby Joseph Cohen Mark Donig Dr. Ruth L. Gottesman
Michael Jesselson Dr. Joseph H. Levine
Moses Libitzky Sallai Meridor Jay Pomrenze Jeanette Garretty Reinhard Heather Reisman Art Sandler
Seth M. Siegel Kinney Zalesne
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The National Library of Israel is profoundly grateful to its supporters in Israel and around the globe. We thank the following individuals and organizations who have partnered with us in this period of renewal , in laying the foundations for the National Library of Israel, our new building , our collections , and our programs ; and those who have generously supported NLI during the period of October 2023 through December 2024, with donations towards NLI’s emergency war campaign and our ongoing work and mission .
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Founders Yad Hanadiv, a Rothschild Foundation David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Family The State of Israel The Hebrew University
Patrons Azrieli Foundation
Frances and Nathan Kirsh Sir Frank Lowy and Family Idan and Batia Ofer Naomi Salomon Stephen A. Schwarzman Lynda and Stewart Resnick
Partners The Blavatnik Family Foundation Sir Ronald Cohen and Lady Sharon Harel Cohen William Davidson Foundation Dr. Albert and Nancy Friedberg FJMS David Geffen Foundation The Koum Family Foundation Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe
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Benefactors Arcadia, a fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin The Russell Berrie Foundation René and Susanne Braginsky The David Berg Foundation Jonathan Holtzman and Joseph Kaufman Helen Diller Family Foundation The Dorset Foundation Sidney and Mildred Edelstein Foundation Saul A. Fox Jeanette and Eli Reinhard Anne Germanacos Dr. Jacqueline Heller Ludwig and Erica Jesselson Family The Klarman Family Foundation Suzie and Bruce Kovner Marsha and Henry Laufer The Lucius N. Littauer Foundation Robert and Ruth Magid Marcus Margulies Shlomo Moussaieff Younes & Soraya Nazarian, Ima Foundation
John Pritzker Family Fund Martin and Nathalie Saidler Samis Foundation, Seattle, Washington
Joyce and Daniel Straus Taube Family Foundation Wilf Family Foundations The Wohl Legacy Anonymous
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Friends
Bader Philanthropies, Inc The Morris and Beverly Baker Foundation Bloomberg Philanthropies Elana and Aryeh Bourkoff Claims Conference Abby Joseph Cohen and David Michael Cohen Crown Family Sir Harry Djanogly Ori and Mirit Eisen Estanne Fawer Estates Committee Tamar and Eric Goldstein The Meg and Bennet Goodman Foundation Robert and Trudy Gottesman Sally Gottesman Martin and Ahuva Gross Arie and Eva Halpern Family Foundation Harel Insurance and Finance Dr. David and Jemima Jeselsohn Zurich, Switzerland Jerusalem Municipality JUF/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago Moshe and Anna Kantor Kirsch Foundation David and Naomi Kolitz Koschitzky Family Sarah and Larry Krauss The Leir Foundation Karen and Joseph Levine Jacob Lew and Ruth Schwartz Moses Libitzky Maimonides Fund Metta Saade Family Foundation, Mexico: Marcos, Vivian, Carlos, Tere and Tania
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation Huti and Jay Pomrenze The Pratt Foundation Charles H. Revson Foundation Heather Reisman and Gerald Schwartz Pamela and George Rohr Roberto and Renata Ruhman Family Art and Annie Sandler The Shapell Family Manuscript Foundation Laszlo Tauber Family Foundation Ealan and Melinda Wingate Wurtman Family (PICO Venture Partners)
Zukier Family Anonymous
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Donors Beracha Foundation Central Synagogue Steven Delamater Sheila Deutsch and Maureen Price Martin and Ruth Dunitz Aaron and Mati Friedman Sheila and Robert Josephberg Mifal HaPais The Joint, Israel Julis Romo Rabinowitz Family Fund Alisa and Neil Kurshan The Manfred & Anne Lehmann Foundation Jewish Federation of Greater Houston Varda and David Makovsky Tina and Steven Price M. Qupty James and Meryl Tisch Schusterman Foundation (Israel) Shonni Silverberg and John Shapiro United Jewish Federation of Tidewater Jane and Stuart Weitzman The Wolfson Family Charitable Trust Anonymous
Supporters
Rosalie and Richard Alter The Kathryn Ames Foundation, Inc. Edward Judah Dauber and family Mark Donig Erika Gideon Ahuva Ho Arlene Kanter and Steven Kepnes
Evie and Evan Makovsky Jon and Naomi Newman Richard Payes Diana Schiowitz
Lynn Schoenbaum Roberta Schoffman
Erica and Robert Schwartz Singer Family Foundation Lizzy and Josh Trump Robert Rifkind Rachel Ringler and Yossi Siegel Cathy and Peter Toren Kinney Zalesne and Scott Siff Anonymous
We value and thank all of our friends who have chosen to support the National Library of Israel at all giving levels. The above lists include the names of donors who made gifts of $5000 and above.
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Writing and project management: Naomi Bloom Wurtman Design: Menachem Silberg, Rotem Cohen Soaye Illustrations: Chen Winner
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