A place of ‘comfort and context’
'We want to be the collective memory of the Jewish people'
ON October 8 last year, the National Library of Israel (NLI) began one of the most comprehensive documenting projects in its 132-year history – curating a tsunami of material on the Hamas invasion and the war that followed.
Authorised as the official library of the State of Israel, the NLI “is the library of Israel and the Jewish people”, said Oren Weinberg, director and CEO, on the eve of his visit to Australia this month.
The massive documentation initiative took the NLI into a new space, said Weinberg, because much of the material to be collected was rapidly emerging online.
“We immediately launched our collecting efforts, and found very quickly that we’re not alone. There are more than 250 initiatives of documenting what happened – some of them private, some organisational.
“So we started to build networking, partnerships and coordination efforts to avoid duplication or neglect of any areas. We’re documenting not just what happens in Israel, but around the world,” said Weinberg, noting the NLI has partnerships in Australia with philanthropic bodies such as the Pratt Foundation.
Located in Jerusalem’s Givat Ram since 1960, the NLI last year relocated to a multipurpose building in the capital’s central precinct near the Knesset building.
In May, the Robert and Ruth Magid Hall was dedicated in a private ceremony. It honours the foundational role Australian foreign minister Herbert Vere ‘Doc’ Evatt played in Israel’s history, as an architect of the 1947 UN Partition Plan and as UNGA president in 1949 when Israel attained UN membership.
And May saw the dedication of the Hugo and Ilona Lowy Main Reading Halls and Special Collections Reading Room, with Sir Frank Lowy, members of the Lowy family, and Israeli President Isaac Herzog and first lady Michal Herzog attending.
NLI has partnered with the Australian Jewish Historical Society in NSW to create a digital archive of The Australian Jewish News, the Jewish newspaper of historical record in Australia.
As the war rages, some 40,000 people visit the NLI each month, said Weinberg. “They come to find comfort and context.”
During his visit, Weinberg will raise awareness of the NLI. “I’m quite sure many Australians don’t know a lot about the library, so we’ll engage with people – as the library of the Jewish people in Jerusalem – as a space that can serve their needs. We want to be the collective memory of the Jewish people but we also want to ask how the library can be an asset to them.”
Oren Weinberg will speak alongside DJ Schneeweiss at the Lamm Library of Australia’s Armchair Society (in partnership with B’nai B’rith Victoria) on Thursday, September 26, 10am. Book: https://events.humanitix.com/as3
Oren Weinberg will speak at the Sydney Jewish Museum on Monday, September 30, 6pm. Book: https://sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/an-evening-with-oren-weinberg/
comments