Cookies

The National Library of Israel website uses cookies to improve your browsing experience. Continued use of the website constitutes consent to the use of cookies. For more information, please see our privacy policy

The NLI: Your Story. Our Story.

Antique manuscripts; robots pulling books off shelves; an exciting, interactive display on a giant 65-ft. screen; ancient incantation bowls; enchanted items; rare recordings of cultural ceremonies. Would you have ever believed you could find all this and much more at a library?

You read that right! It’s all here at the National Library of Israel!

Inside an impressive new building, you can find the greatest, most important cultural treasures of Israeli society and the Jewish People. Soon, you – curious people of all ages seeking a quality, content-rich, meaningful experience – will be able to see all these treasures up close.

You are invited to the National Library’s brand-new home in Jerusalem, where you can enjoy thought-provoking tours, exhibitions, and activities that will inspire your imagination and warm your heart.

It's a learning experience that’s both fun and inspiring – and it can only happen here.

Visit us soon!

For more information and tickets
The new National Library of Israel building, Photo: Albatross

How to Visit the National Library

Entry Without a Ticket

The Library building is open to everyone, free of charge!
When visiting for free, you can wander the unique building, observe the robots locating books in the automated storeroom, view the impressive reading halls, visit the enormous “Letters of Light” sculpture, and chill out in the pleasant garden with a cup of coffee.

Paid Entry to "The Treasures"

With your ticket to "The Treasures", you can experience the National Library’s enormous interactive display, go on a trip through space and time with "A Treasury of Words" - our permanent exhibition - and continue on to the rotating exhibits.
The entry ticket includes a personal audio guide headset (Hebrew, Arabic, or English), which will take you on an independent tour of the display and the permanent exhibition. The audio guide will identify where you are and explain what you are seeing before you. Magical!

"The Treasures": When to Come

IMPORTANT: Entry tickets should be ordered in advance. Otherwise, entry is based on availability. To order tickets >
When?

Sunday-Wednesday – 9am-6pm
Thursday – 2pm-10pm
Fridays and Holiday eve – 10am-1pm
More on the Visit
Age: Visits and tours of the Library are suitable for children, adults, and everyone in between, particularly from reading age (7) and up.
Visit duration: The tour itself lasts about an hour and a half. You are invited to stay as long as you’d like when your tour is over :)
How to Get Here
The address of the Library’s new building is Eliezer Kaplan St 1, Jerusalem. It is centrally located between the Knesset and the Israel Museum.
Arrival by public transportation is recommended.

For more on directions and navigation to the Library

What to Do at the National Library of Israel

Permanent Exhibition - “A Treasury of Words

Meet the Words That Made History

In our innovative exhibition hall, filled with a sense of mystery and under gentle lights necessary to preserve ancient ink, some of our most precious and important artifacts are displayed to the visiting public.

In the “A Treasury of Words” exhibition, you are invited to embark on a journey through time, and through words.

You will see age-old holy scriptures up close. You will draw inspiration from the handwriting of Nobel laureate S.Y. Agnon, Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer, and other well-known cultural icons. You will discover what magical words were once inscribed on mysterious incantation bowls, and gain a deeper understanding of how words shaped our history and culture here, in this place.

In this exhibition, you will see with your own eyes the original writings that shaped our reality. Hear the stories behind them and understand why they are so important to us.

This exhibition will leave you with a sense of discovery and inspiration that will stay with you long after you have left the building.

*Entry to the exhibition is included in the price of a paid ticket for "The Treasures"

 

Photo: Orly Simon