Language:
שפה נוכחית
Sacred texts, scientific innovations, conveyors of tradition, literary masterpieces, mystical revelations, and works of art: in all these roles and more manuscripts are central to Islamic civilization.
The Islam and Middle East Collection of the National Library of Israel includes more than 2,500 Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts. These handwritten books date from the 9th to the 20th centuries and include manuscripts copied across the Islamic world, spanning all major Islamic disciplines and literary traditions, as well as Christian, Druze, and Baháʼí religious writings.
The collection also houses copies of important scientific, mathematical, and medical treatises; lavishly illustrated poems in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish; and legal and commercial documents. This gallery talk will reveal the surprising histories, intricate craftsmanship, and fascinating stories behind the Islamic manuscripts included in the Library's permanent exhibition.
This Gallery Talk is sponsored by Rosalie and Richard Alter, in memory of their dear friend David Kolitz
Abraham Zvi Idelsohn gained renown for his documentation and comprehensive research of Jewish music of his time, in Central Europe and the Land of Israel. In addition, his original compositions laid the groundwork for what would become known as “Israeli music.” How does an Ashkenazi cantor from Latvia become a world expert on Jewish music of the Near and Middle East? Which of his songs are still remembered in Israeli anthologies? Even a casual examination of Idelsohn’s work confirms his reputation as the “father” of Jewish music research.
This event will be held in English.
This Gallery Talk is sponsored by Rosalie and Richard Alter, in memory of their dear friend David Kolitz
Franz Kafka is regarded as one of the outstanding writers of 20th-century literature. Over a period of two decades, he wrote several works that continue to influence writing styles and artistic creation to this day. Kafka derived his inspiration from the circumstances of his own life, and the cultural and professional environment in which he lived. This Gallery Talk will focus on Kafka’s literary legacy, connecting it to his life in Prague, his social circle, and Jewish subjects that increasingly engaged his attention.
The Gallery Talk will be held in the new exhibition at the National Library, Kafka: Metamorphosis of an Author
This Gallery Talk is sponsored by Rosalie and Richard Alter, in memory of their dear friend David Kolitz
In 2019, after long court hearings in Israel and elsewhere over Max Brod’s literary estate, a large number of drawings by Franz Kafka that had been kept under lock and key for decades in Switzerland became accessible at the NLI. Although Kafka is renowned for his written work, his drawings are evidence of what Brod termed his “double talent.” Irresistible and full of fascinating figures, shifting from the realistic to the fantastic, the grotesque, the uncanny, and the carnivalesque, they illuminate a previously unknown side of the quintessential modernist author.
Kafka’s Drawings was edited in 2021 by Andreas Kilcher the eminent Swiss Kafka scholar. The volume has been translated into over ten languages; the Hebrew edition will be published shortly. In the Gallery Talk, Andreas Kilcher will shed light on the biographical and art-historical context of Kafka's drawings, as well as their connection with his writing.
Every day new materials enter our collections, each year adding up to tens of thousands of printed volumes, hundreds of thousands of archival documents and photographs, and terabytes of digital materials. Every item tells a unique story; taken together, they enrich our understanding of ourselves, our region, and humanity as a whole. The NLI's five main collections – Judaica, Israel, Islam and Middle East, General Humanities, and Music – reflect these intersecting circles of inquiry.
The gallery talk is an invitation to view the Library’s most recent and valuable acquisitions and offers a glimpse into the vast storehouse of treasures held within.
This Gallery Talk is sponsored by Rosalie and Richard Alter, in memory of their dear friend David Kolitz
How did a chance encounter in a hallway lead to the deposit of Franz Kafka’s archive at the National Library?
A gallery talk on the Kafkaesque journey of the archive over the years, culminating in its inclusion in the exhibition marking 100 years since the passing of Franz Kafka.
This Gallery Talk will feature a discussion with Attorney Meir Heller, Legal Advisor to the National Library, who initiated and managed the legal proceedings in Israel, Switzerland, and Germany concerning Kafka’s literary estate and its transfer to the National Library, and with Netta Assaf, co-curator of the exhibition Kafka: Metamorphosis of an Author.
Participants:
- Attorney Meir Heller, Partner and Head of the Litigation Department at A. Landau Law Firm – Legal Advisor to the National Library
- Netta Assaf, Exhibition Curator of the National Library
This Gallery Talk is sponsored by Rosalie and Richard Alter, in memory of their dear friend David Kolitz
The Passover Haggadah teaches that "In every generation, a person is obligated to see himself [or herself] as if he [or she] had [personally] participated in the Exodus from Egypt." Each of the Passover Haggadot that have been written, illuminated and printed over the centuries reflects the values, concerns, agendas and ideologies of its communities. The NLI's permanent exhibition highlights Haggadot from different times and places, each one telling the story of its time and place.
This gallery talk is a unique opportunity to see on display the Moss Haggadah, a Haggadah that presents dialogue between tradition and innovation, which will be presented for the first time at The National Library, Gift of Trudy Elbaum Gottesman and Robert Gottesman, New York
This Gallery Talk is sponsored by Rosalie and Richard Alter, in memory of their dear friend David Kolitz
A close-up examination of the course of the Eretz-Israel press in the 1940s, and its critical role in shaping the society and its mechanisms en route to the establishment of the state and in the years that followed.
This Gallery Talk is sponsored by Rosalie and Richard Alter, in memory of their dear friend David Kolitz
Immánuel Löw, Szeged’s chief rabbi and a trained botanist, played a key role in shaping the aesthetic vision of the synagogue in Szeged, Hungary. He was instrumental in decorating both the interior spaces and the surrounding garden, with particular attention to floral and plant motifs. This talk focuses on the synagogue’s floral decorations and garden, examining how flowers and plants were used to convey religious symbolism while reflecting early 20th-century European design trends. Participants will have the opportunity to explore how flowers and plants helped define the visual identity of one of Hungary’s most significant synagogues. Through the exhibition they will also learn about Löw's seminal work, Die Flora der Juden (“The Flora of the Jews”), and his central contributions to botanical and linguistic research.
This event is taking place in English.
On the occasion of the closing of Hadassa Goldvicht’s exhibition “To the Internal Libraries”, Goldvicht will speak with the groundbreaking pioneer artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and discuss the National Library’s collections as a reflection of invisible human actions across generations; the connections between body, motherhood and the architecture of the Library; as well as hidden reservoirs of knowledge, both personal and collective, and their profound roles in these times and beyond.
Opening remarks: Neta Assaf and Karine Shabtai