Imagine this: You are sitting at a desk in the new National Library, and you want to see one of the four million books in the library’s collection. You fill out a digital request, a robot finds your book and deposits it in a box, and the book is delivered to your desk in a few minutes.
Starting in October, this will become a reality. The new National Library will open to the public with a 600-person capacity main reading hall, as well as both permanent and rotating collections.
At a press preview in early September, the 11-story building (six floors above ground and five floors below) seemed far from finished. But the stunning architecture next to the Israel Museum and across from the Knesset have added a new dimension to Jerusalem.
“This is an emotional moment – we are in the delivery room after 25 years, and we are about to give birth,” Salai Meridor, the chairman of the National Library, said at the press preview. “I hope this place can be a bridge, and not a narrow bridge, between the past and the future.”
The number of collections housed in the library is staggering: four million books, 200,000 of which are on display at the library on any given day; 1,500 archives from all over the world; 13,000 maps, including a collection of ancient maps; 2.5 million photos; and 7,500 pages in Isaac Newtons’ own handwriting.
The story of the National Library of Israel
The story of the library goes back 131 years, even before the First Zionist Conference in Basel. It was founded by Zionists in the Diaspora who established an institution they hoped would preserve the historical memory and heritage of the Jewish people. For decades, the library was part of Hebrew University and was situated on the Givat Ram campus.
There are five major collections: Judaism; Israel; music; Islam and the Middle East; and humanities. An extensive part of the collection is digitized, and there are some 10 million unique visits to the website, including from countries like Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Yemen, which have no diplomatic relations with Israel. At the new building, there are state-of the-art galleries that will allow visitors to see pieces of Jewish history, such as the Damascus Crown; a 1,000-year-old Torah volume; a manuscript with commentaries on the Mishna in the handwriting of the Rambam; and a 1,000-year-old Koran.
There are also pieces of Israeli history that will be on display, such as the first draft of the song “Jerusalem of Gold” written by Naomi Shemer; a piece of paper found in the pocket of paratrooper and poet Hannah Senesh on the day she was executed by a Nazi firing squad; and writer Stefan Zweig’s suicide note.
The building itself was designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog and de Meuron, best known for designing the Tate Modern in London. The Jerusalem stone building looks like it could take flight at any moment. In front of the building is a huge stone sculpture called Letters of Light by Israel Prize laureate Micha Ullman. It is based on the ancient Kabbalistic text called Sefer Yetzirah (the Book of Creation) and centers around the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Inside the building are artworks by Israeli and international artists, including two newly donated works by Marc Chagall.
There is also a large education center where thousands of schoolchildren will visit every year. One special program will bring children from east Jerusalem for programs interacting with the Islamic collection to teach research skills and teacher training.
The Islamic collection is popular with scholars around the world, says Raquel Ukeles, the head of collections at the library.
“Digitally, it’s just crazy,” she said. “Last year we had over one million users of the library’s digital materials in Arabic. For example, from 1908 to 1948 there were over 200 titles published in Arabic in Palestine, and we’ve scanned 300,000 pages of them.”
She said that while pre-COVID the library was primarily used by scholars, she hopes it will now involve the public much more. There is a 480-seat auditorium for lectures and concerts, as well as a visitor’s center with both permanent and temporary exhibits.
The total cost of the building was NIS 845 million (more than $220 million); 85 percent of the construction cost was financed by donors, such as Yad Hanadiv, the Rothschild Foundation.
“For more than 140 years, our family’s foundation, Yad Hanadiv, has promoted education, health, and social justice through its programs and buildings, which include the Knesset, the Supreme Court, and now the National Library,” said Hannah Rothschild, the chair of Yad Hanadiv. “This gift was made for the benefit of all of the citizens of Israel, and we are extremely proud of this iconic addition to Jerusalem’s skyline.”
The building conforms to the highest standards of green construction and was awarded the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum Certification, the highest accolade a building can receive. The National Library has solar panels and low-energy special lighting. It is the first building in Israel with rock storage, which stores thermal energy during the night and thus uses less energy to cool the building. ■
For more information, visit www.nli.org.il/en