Come March, and in advance of Israel’s 75th Independence Day, the People of the Book will have a shrine worthy of its literary legacy, promises Oren Weinberg, CEO of the National Library of Israel, making him the chief librarian of the Jewish people.
Almost half the NLI’s collection of more than 5,000,000 rare volumes, manuscripts, incunabula, books and miscellaneous printed material has been transferred from the current building on the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Givat Ram campus.
Their new home, 500 meters away, is a 45,000 sq.m. venue located at the northwest corner of Kaplan and Ruppin Boulevard in the Ben-Gurion government complex, between the Knesset and the Israel Museum.
“Construction of the new National Library of Israel complex is nearing completion,” Weinberg told The Jerusalem Report. “Over the past year, the new building has emerged as a stunning addition to the Jerusalem cityscape, already recognized as a major Jerusalem landmark.
“This building reflects the Library’s transformative renewal from the secluded environment of a university campus to a stunning physical manifestation of our central value: opening access to the National Library of Israel’s treasures to broad and diverse audiences from Israel and around the world.”
“This building reflects the Library’s transformative renewal from the secluded environment of a university campus to a stunning physical manifestation of our central value: opening access to the National Library of Israel’s treasures to broad and diverse audiences from Israel and around the world.”
Oren Weinberg
Weinberg told a recent explanatory session for the library’s core group of readers and researchers that while boxing, moving and unpacking 33,000 books daily is a daunting logistical challenge, he and his NLI team are proud that they are doing so without disrupting service to the institution’s many thousands of daily readers.
The transfer of the books is scheduled to be complete by December, when a hi-tech array will protect the invaluable collection from fire, water damage and theft. Apart from reference material, most books will be housed in the five basement levels. The six floors above ground will serve the public and staff.
With palpable excitement, Weinberg displayed photos of the construction progress at his $200 million baby, funded by the Rothschild family’s Yad Hanadiv and the Gottesman Fund of New York.
The NLI was designed by architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, and if that name is familiar, it’s because the Switzerland-based team, led by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, are renowned for their “Birds Nest” stadium that graced Beijing’s 2008 Olympics. (The firm also recently completed the renovation and new extension of the Stadtcasino Basel, site of the First Zionist Congress, and of its recent 125th anniversary celebration). Their Jerusalem library is certain to be an equally recognizable instant landmark. Located on an irregular plot, the architects designed a modern interpretation of a triangular flatiron building. Planting was done prior to the shmita sabbatical year, making for an unusual construction site surrounded by lush gardens.
Like its predecessor which opened in 1960 and is named after noted Jewish Canadian philanthropist Henriette Marie Meyer (1872-1963) better known as Lady Davis of Montreal, it too will have a spiral staircase, but the comparison ends there. With a glass oculus – calling it a skylight would be too modest – and a swooping roof that would be a skateboarder’s delight, the distinctive library will be incomparably more multi-purpose than the current facility.
Besides the greatly expanded and dramatic three-level reading room, it will encompass an auditorium, display areas, lockers, commercial space, a restaurant, a synagogue, and underground parking.
The multi-purpose research center and venue for cultural and educational activities will also be a place to drink coffee and socialize, Weinberg said. It will be home for the People of the Book.
Illuminated at night, the NLI and its oculus promise to be a light unto the nations beckoning with the collective knowledge of the Jewish people.
Founded in 1892, the NLI today is the repository of the world’s largest collection of Judaica and Hebraica. It collects everything related to the State of Israel, and contextualizes that core with general books on the Humanities, Islam, the Middle East, religion and antisemitica.
Among its rare treasures are the Damascus Crown, a 13th-century Hebrew Bible smuggled out of Syria 29 years ago in a Mossad operation so hush-hush that the manuscript’s existence in Israel was kept secret for years. Another priceless volume is a commentary on the Mishna handwritten by Maimonides.
Sir Isaac Newton’s manuscripts about theology and the apocalypse, including his notations in cursive English and Hebrew, have a home at the NLI. Newton predicted the end of the world will come in 2060. That should leave readers 37 years to savor the new building.
More recent is Czech novelist Franz Kafka’s notebook, wherein he recorded Hebrew words and their German meaning in advance of his unfulfilled dream of settling in Jerusalem.
The NLI continues with its mission of collecting, preserving and providing access to the cultural treasures of the State of Israel and the Diaspora. For example, in a complex deal in 2017, the library acquired 80% of the famed 10,000-volume Valmadonna Trust Library – the largest private collection of Hebrew books and manuscripts in the world. Included was a rare 1491 Chumash from Lisbon, one of only two surviving copies of a 1556 Passover Haggadah from Prague, a siddur (prayer book) from Venice dated 1459 written on klaf (parchment), and a Hebrew Bible handwritten in England in 1189 — the only dated Hebrew text before the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290 by King Edward I.
In keeping with NLI policy, the price paid for the collection was not released. Selections from the collection will be on view to the public in March, when the National Library opens.
Like books, space can also be a precious commodity. With desks for only 600 readers, the Givat Ram structure is today obsolete. The new building will have more than double that number. Each reader will enjoy a 1.25-meter-long desk instead of the 80 cm at a bench currently available. Each space will be equipped with its own reading lamp.
While computers will be readily available both at desks and to borrow, it is anticipated that most readers will be bringing their own notebooks, Weinberg said. That fact reveals the NLI’s forward-looking vision whereby ever more materials will be digitized as the preservation of knowledge evolves.
“We look forward to welcoming readers, researchers, students and the public at large to the new National Library of Israel in 2023,” Weinberg said. ■
NOTE: As this story went to press, the death of NLI patron David “Sandy” Gottesman was announced. NLI Board Chairman Sallai Meridor said, “Sandy’s legacy will be felt in the landmark new Library building and I regret deeply that he will not see this magnificent project through to its completion. The new building, and educational activities that will take place within, are testament to his generous commitment and true friendship to the National Library of Israel.
Ex libris
Gish Amit’s 2014 book Ex-Libris: Chronicles of Theft, Preservation, and Appropriating at the Jewish National Library, published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, tells the extraordinary story of how three collections came to the NLI.
Following WWII, the “Diaspora Treasures” project brought to Jerusalem hundreds of thousands of books once owned by now-murdered Jews that had been looted by the Nazis.
Similarly during Israel’s 1948-49 War of Independence, 30,000 Arabic-language books that were owned by Palestinian refugees were collected. They are cataloged “A.P.” – abandoned property – and await a peace treaty so that they may be turned over to the future National Library of Palestine.
Most problematic was the gathering of books and manuscripts from the 49,000 Yemenite Jews who were rescued and brought to the nascent state in 1949 and 1950 in Operation “On Wings of Eagles.”
Amit documents that only a small number of those books were ever returned to their rightful owners.