Language:
שפה נוכחית
Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook
Registration to the System
Welcome! You can register by filling in your personal details or by logging into your Facebook or Google account
or
Registration to the System
Forgot password?
Welcome! You can register by filling in your personal details or by logging into your Facebook or Google account
or
Come and visit "The Treasures" - our various exhibitions and interactive displays - which present the most fascinating items from our collections to the public.
You can gain access to "The Treasures" by buying a ticket for an individual tour, or one of our guided tours. You also have the option of booking your own group tour.
See the "How to Visit the National Library" section below to order tickets and find more information about these different options.
A paid ticket to "The Treasures" includes:
- Access to "A Treasury of Words" - a journey through space and time with our permanent exhibition
- Access to the rotating exhibitions
- Access to the National Library's special interactive video display
Order tickets for an individual tour
Order tickets for a guided tour
The Library building is open to everyone, free of charge!
When visiting for free, you can wander the unique building, view the impressive reading halls, visit the enormous “Letters of Light” sculpture, and chill out in the pleasant garden with a cup of coffee.
There is no need to order a ticket to access these parts of the Library, though you must obtain a library card to enter the reading halls (free of charge). For more information on obtaining a library card >
With your ticket to "The Treasures", you can experience the National Library’s enormous interactive display and go on a trip through space and time with "A Treasury of Words" - our permanent exhibition. Our rotating exhibitions are also part of "The Treasures" experience. You can read more about these exhibitions further below on this page.
Order tickets for an individual tour of "The Treasures" >
Order tickets for a guided tour of "The Treasures" >
Want to visit us as a group? Contact us via telephone at *5049 or via email at [email protected]
Sunday-Wednesday: 9am-6pm
Thursday: 2pm-10pm
Friday and holiday eve: 10am-1pm
More on the Visit
Age suitability: 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.
Meet the Words That Made History
In an 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.
"A Treasury of Words" is on display in the William Davidson Permanent Exhibitions Gallery at the National Library of Israel.
*Entry to the exhibition is included in the price of a paid ticket for "The Treasures"
Photo: Orly Simon
"Encounters of Beauty"
Do you look at the illustrations in the Passover Haggadah before you read the text?
You’re not the only one: Since the beginning of time, writing and illustration have been intertwined, each of them strengthening the other, and leaving us with a legacy of rich, colorful, beautiful works of art.
In the “Encounters of Beauty” exhibition, selected articles of Judaica from the Braginsky Collection - one of the largest private collections of Jewish manuscripts in the world – are displayed alongside items from the National Library of Israel’s collections. In this exhibition, you can admire richly illustrated scrolls of the Book of Esther, Jewish marriage contracts – ketubot - decorated with touching delicacy, and other rare manuscripts of exceptional beauty.
Our rotating exhibitions are on display in the Helen Diller Family Rotating Exhibitions Gallery at the National Library of Israel.
*Entry to the exhibition is included in the price of a paid ticket for "The Treasures"
An entire world and all it contains can be created with just 22 letters.
According to the Sefer Yetzirah ("the Book of Creation"), an ancient Jewish mystical text, that is exactly how the world was created: from 22 letters.
In the “Letters of Light” sculpture that was specially created for the National Library by Israel Prize winning artist Micha Ullman, you can observe how light and shadow play off of each other, resulting in the formation of Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin letters. You can walk amongst giant rock letters that are over six feet high and imagine the world you’d like to write into existence.
Access to the sculpture is free of charge, through the Library Garden.
Observing Our Hardworking Robots
In an enormous hall, full of endless shelves, sit countless crates overflowing with books.
4 million books. This is the hidden treasure of the National Library – our automated storeroom.
How can librarians possibly find any books here? That’s an excellent question. To help make that possible, we have four sophisticated robots who can find any book in the storeroom and retrieve it. Through this window, you can watch our robots in action!
You can’t enter the hall itself because the oxygen levels there are close to zero, which helps us protect the books from catching fire. Come observe our automated storeroom through the large window and hear the whole story for yourselves.
The storeroom window can only be accessed with a Library guide. More details at the information desk.
Across an enormous 65-ft. wide screen, delve into an interactive experience dedicated to the love of books, the joy of reading, and the impact of books on our lives.
Our interactive video display can be found in the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Experiential Center at the National Library of Israel.
*Entry to the exhibition is included in the price of a paid ticket for "The Treasures"
The National Library invites you to hold family or business events in a unique space: The Conference and Event Center at the New National Library. World-class facilities at a central location (adjacent to the Knesset) including: An auditorium, an assembly hall, meeting rooms, a restaurant, an event courtyard, green gardens and additional spectacularly designed spaces.
The NLI contains 13 study rooms which can be used by the public. These are located in the Reading Rooms on floors -1 and -2.
Each room contains an erasable writing board and television screen that can be hooked up to a computer.
Operating hours are in accordance with the operating hours of the Reading Rooms.
Enjoy some coffee, soft drinks, sandwiches, salads and pastries at Harry's Café, located on floor 0. While there you can also explore a unique work of art by Gali Cnaani.
Opening hours: Sunday – Thursday, 8 am – 7 pm
Friday, 8 am – 1 pm
Our restaurant will soon be opening as well.
At "As Promised", the library gift shop, located on floor 0, you can find creative and original souvenirs which will continue to tell our story, long after you’ve come back home.
Books, design products, original games, and Judaica items – these are just some of the things waiting for you here. Don’t forget to drop by before heading home.