101 Treasures from the National Library of Israel | The Massacre That Never Was

101 Treasures from the National Library of Israel
by Raquel Ukeles et al.

Scala Arts Publishers
2023, 334 pages

Artfully photographed by Ardan Bar Hama, this stunning showcase includes brief essays describing some of the wide variety of donations to Jerusalem’s National Library, reflecting donors’ visions for the Jewish people’s treasury of the written word. In 1927, for instance, scholar and publicist Abraham Schwadron gifted his entire autograph collection to the library. From Rabbi Joseph Karo to Franz Kafka, much of our insight into what this book terms “the Jewish People’s Hall of Fame” is thanks to Schwadron. 

Seventeenth-century diarist Gluckl Hamel’s signature in the ledger of the Frankfurt Jewish community – attesting to fulfillment of a pledge in support of Jews in the land of Israel – might not look like much, but the unlikely survival of this communal memorial book is remarkable. Its presence in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People – another gem within the National Library – testifies to the Jewish obsession with preserving history, one vital function of the library itself. 

Manuscripts stored here include the ancient biblical codices, or “crowns,” treasured by the Syrian Jewish community as well as illuminated volumes such as Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah embellished with gold leaf. 

Although most items here have been chosen for their historical rather than aesthetic value (and many have featured over the years in Segula), the volume is a feast for both eye and mind. One of the most beautiful examples is an illustrated Ethiopian Christian prayer book; perhaps most incidental are the color postcards sent by Theodor Herzl to his daughter Pauline while visiting the Holy Land. 

Diverse, unpredictable, and linked to the land of Israel – these three elements encapsulate the National Library of Israel, just like the Jewish people itself.