Israel’s National Library is all of those things and more: it has truly become a modern-day gem since its founding in 1892.

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Adults of a certain age likely have fond memories of their childhood neighborhood library, where they carefully selected books to bring home or listened attentively and with wonder as the librarian read stories aloud during story time. Of course they may also have memories of being “shushed” by the librarian for speaking too loudly!

Others have memories of going to the library to use encyclopedias or to read newspapers or magazines they did not have access to at home. They will also remember when libraries began to provide copy machines, free Wi-Fi, and computers and when they became virtual offices where one could spend hours working (and charging their phones). 

Library users of all ages will agree that libraries have grown and evolved over the years. They are free and open to all, they are representative of the local neighborhood and society, and they are usually air-conditioned, making them a wonderful place to spend a hot summer day.

Israel’s National Library is all of those things and more: it has truly become a modern-day gem since its founding in 1892. In 2023, the National Library of Israel – built at the astounding cost of $220 million – moved into an impressive new building, very close to both the Knesset and the Israel Museum. The library boasts such amenities as several cafes and outdoor eating areas, an area for parents to read stories to children, and storage lockers for its over 40,000 monthly visitors.

The library’s Main Reading Halls are open on Sunday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and are closed on Shabbat. Explore the library on your own, with an audio tour, or with a guide. Everyone is also eligible to apply online for a pass that allows entry to the main reading room; the process takes seconds, and a QR code for library access is sent to your mobile device in seconds.

And the National Library Law, passed in 2007, assures that libraries are accessible to everyone. The law turned the National Library into an independent company and mandates that it provide public access to its collections, including exhibitions and cultural activities. It also outlines the library’s commitment to Jewish studies, general humanities, and Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. 

In addition, the National Library also documents Israel’s cultural heritage, promotes research, and serves as a cultural and educational center – for people of all ages and abilities. 

Wander through the library, and you will find a large sampling of the over five million books housed here, as well as periodicals and journals, with a significant portion on open shelves in the reading halls. The library also holds a vast collection of other materials, including manuscripts, archives, maps, and musical recordings, reflecting the cultural treasures of Israel and Jewish heritage, according to its website.

Magical interactive garden

The National Library clearly takes its commitment to access and accessibility seriously. In an era where children often default to screens, the library makes it very appealing for children and families to visit. This summer, from July 27 to August 12, it has been featuring “The Secret Garden,” a magical, interactive cardboard garden where children can wander among the trees and flowers.

They can also take an interactive tour of the exhibit, Yesh Prachim Bein Madafei HaSifriya HaLeumit (There Are Flowers Between the Shelves of the National Library), which spotlights flowers in Israeli culture.

Finally, family members can enjoy Kan Tzomchim Shirim (Here Songs Grow), an original play by the National Library combined with a creative workshop.

  • When: It runs Sunday through Thursday, July 27 to August 12 – three times a day at 12 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 5 p.m. – It does not run on Friday.
  • Price: NIS 45 for children ages 3-12; NIS 35 for adults. Each participant over three years old must have a ticket (including accompanying adults). Family packages can be purchased at particularly affordable prices. Special discounts for Yerushalmi club members (NIS 40), senior citizens, soldiers, reservists, members of the security forces, and evacuees (with presentation of ID).

Commitment to accessibility and inclusion

The National Library of Israel proudly employs both a Head of the Visitor Center, Tamar Sorek, and an Accessibility Coordinator for the Education Department and Visitors Center, Shiri Aran. These roles and the library’s special programming and accommodations are indicators of their commitment to accessibility and inclusion.

“From the minute the library opened its doors to the public on October 29, 2023, and we started welcoming groups, we provided physical access to all,” reports Sorek. At a recent meeting with InJerusalem at “The Secret Garden,” Sorek and Aran shared many of the procedures in place to assure the National Library is accessible to all visitors, including those with disabilities. 

Approximately four times a year, the library offers “quiet hour,” where the library closes early and children with disabilities and siblings and parents who register in advance can enjoy museum tours in small groups, staffed by specially trained staff members. “They receive an introduction to the National Library – why we exist and how many books [we have]. They visit three stations and write personal letters,” Sorek shares.

The National Library has been providing tours and programming for schools serving students with a wide range of disabilities and offers adapted tours and workshops. Interested schools and families contact Aran to discuss necessary accommodations. “There is no group we say no to – ALL can come!” she reports proudly. 

Sorek and Aran are particularly proud of an upcoming “Secret Garden” activity taking place on August 11 at 5 p.m. The program, geared for people with disabilities and their siblings and parents, will consist of a guided tour of “Flowers Among the National Library Shelves,” which explores the role of flowers in Israeli culture, a “Stroll Through A Blooming Cardboard Garden,” and “Songs Grow Here,” an original performance from the National Library’s creative studio. 

The event, nearly identical to the one run three times a day throughout the summer, will be held in small groups. In all presentations and performances, language will be modified, simplified, and shortened. In addition, a quiet room, fidget toys, and noise-blocking headphones will be available. (www.nli.org.il/he/visit/family-visit/the-secret-garden-tzamid)

Sorek is pleased to offer this program and is already at work, along with Aran, planning additional accessible activities. “The programs offer not a different experience, but a high-quality experience in a way that suits their needs!”

The details: Accessibility and accommodations

  • All of the library’s service areas, reading rooms, and elevators are wheelchair accessible.
  • For the reading impaired, an automated telephone service is available during opening hours at the Reference Desk or at the Circulation Desk.
  • For the visually impaired: The library has a special, modified computer station; service dogs are allowed to enter the library; and there are two programs for the blind and the visually impaired 
  • JAWS Screen Reader and ZoomText.
  • For the hearing impaired: Special equipment is available at the Circulation and Reference Desks. Those with hearing aids can set them to “T” mode, enabling the user to communicate with the service provider more effectively. Tours offer headphones as well as tours at various times with sign language interpreters.
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Originally appeared in Jerusalem Post “In Jerusalem” Magazine, August 8, 2025

If the Jewish calendar and technology have anything to do with it, this may be the moment to meet your bashert (soulmate).

On Tuesday, August 12 – just three days after Tu B’Av (the 15th of the Hebrew month of Av) – the traditional Jewish “Day of Love,” where men would traditionally follow women in white dresses dancing in vineyards in hopes of landing a bride, 6,500+ Jewish singles of all backgrounds from around the world will participate in the largest virtual AI-assisted Jewish speed dating event in history.

Last year’s event, which had 6,000 participants, reportedly led to thousands of matches, including several engagements and marriages. Daniel and Chaya lived for years in the same Arizona apartment building and knew each other but never considered each other romantically – until they connected at last year’s speed dating event, went on a real date, and soon after got engaged and married! The community, which includes the CoronaCrush Facebook group where it all started, proudly boasts over 100 marriages since it was founded.

In this free event, participants can choose between two time slots – 9 p.m. Israel time (IDT) or 9 p.m. East Coast time (EDT) – and are matched for up to seven video dates, each lasting around seven minutes, based on shared values, preferences, and backgrounds.

After each mini-date, participants are prompted to complete a quick feedback form to indicate mutual interest, which can lead to further connection.

Participants must be 18 or older and identify as Jewish, whether traditional, Orthodox, secular, or somewhere in between. Language and observance preferences are taken into account when matches are created.

Organizers of the mega event include AISH, Partners In Torah, and Corona- Crush, which began as a Facebook group during COVID-19 and is now a global platform for Jewish singles, with over 30,000 members. They will join with over 30 partner organizations worldwide for the event.

Ian Mark, CEO of CoronaCrush, who made aliyah from New York 10 years ago, is pleased with what the groups are accomplishing together.

“When mission-aligned organizations come together with a shared purpose – to strengthen Jewish connection and continuity – magic happens. This isn’t just another dating event. It’s a movement.”

Register at www.tubav2025.com/jpost [tags: CoronaCrush; Tu B’av; Day of Love”

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Swimmer Michele Kupfer originally set out to tell stories of the Maccabiah Games, first held in 1932.

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Michele (Kuvin) Kupfer dove into new waters several years ago with the start of a documentary with the working title, “Parting the Waters: The Story of The Maccabiah Games.” She called it a feature-length documentary about trauma, hope and courage.

The behavioral therapist, educational consultant and documentary filmmaker swam competitively for Israel in her late teens and early 20s. She was a member of the 1980 Israeli Olympic team.

Kupfer held numerous Israeli national records and participated in many international competitions, most meaningfully the 1981 Maccabiah Games. She continues to swim at the level of masters.

She had originally set out to tell stories of the Maccabiah Games, first held in 1932.

“We started this film idea over three years ago,” she said. “It really started in 2021 when my best mate Lior was dying. I pitched the idea to our team, and they said, ‘Make the film.’ As with most documentaries, they take twists and turns as the story evolves. This happened to us for all the right reasons.”

“Parting the Waters,” which has been selected for the feature documentary program of the Oscar-Qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival, has evolved to be a “more personal and universal” film, she says.

Kupfer received input that “everyone loved the idea of a female athlete but wanted more of a personal story—one that can be relatable to whoever watches it.”

She explains that “it is one woman’s journey to find herself,” and addresses such personal struggles and challenges as her own dyslexia, and the extreme challenges of having a son living with and through brain cancer.

It is also the story of being a Jewish and Israeli athlete.

Kupfer says that “one of the best parts for me is that it is a positive film about Israel—no politics, a personal story which we all have. We hope that telling it will resonate with whoever watches.”

The film premieres on Aug. 8 at the Providence Showcase Cinema.

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View original article on Jerusalem Post

Smith invites readers to start their “Inner Garden,” which includes planting and cultivating “forty-seven assorted seeds that correspond to forty-seven weekly Torah portions. In an effort to show up to synagogue more knowledgeable about the weekly Torah portion – and be prepared to offer a few words of Torah on short notice if asked by my lunch hosts – I picked up Yiscah Smith’s thought-provoking, well-researched new book, Planting Seeds of the Divine: Torah Commentaries to Cultivate Your Spiritual Practice. This magnificent gem is extremely useful, with clear structure, range, and depth of insights.

Over my pre-shul morning coffee, I was impressed with Smith’s short summary of the parasha in the chapter “Korah: Healing an Inflated Sense of Self.” She has an extraordinary grasp of traditional and modern texts and commentators – in this chapter, they range from the Zohar to 20th-century Shalom Noach Berezovsky, author of Netivot Shalom.

The key to getting the most out of Smith’s book is a careful reading of the Introduction. The book grew out of “Shabbat sacred gatherings” she hosted each week in Jerusalem, featuring “a spiritual teaching on the weekly Torah portion, followed by a guided contemplative spiritual practice that leads into quietude, and from there, a chanting of sacred melodies, a sharing of insights, and a concluding kiddush lunch.”

Attendees searched for a book modeled after these weekly get-togethers. She did not know of one, but while visiting the family gravesites of the Piaseczner Rebbe, Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, in Warsaw, she received “a divine call” to write this volume. We are all the beneficiaries. In the introduction, Smith addresses weighty and important topics such as “What is God?” – a topic she no doubt contemplated at length in recent years.

The author grew up in a Conservative movement home on Long Island, eventually becoming ultra-Orthodox and a teacher of Torah in Jerusalem.

Smith’s unique personal journey is recounted in her 2014 memoir, Forty Years in the Wilderness: My Journey to Authentic Living.

She is now an educator at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and Applied Jewish Spirituality online.

Planting an inner garden

Smith invites readers to start their “Inner Garden,” which includes planting and cultivating “forty-seven assorted seeds that correspond to forty-seven weekly Torah portions. Each seed contributes to the garden’s beauty: the beauty of a higher God-consciousness.”

Each of the 47 chapters corresponds to one of the weekly portions of the Torah and follows a pattern: a verse containing the parasha’s midda, “Where We Are,” which contextualizes the portion as to where it fits into biblical narrative; “At First Glance,” traditional rabbinic commentaries; “A Deeper Dive,” which she describes as “spiritually infused teachings, primarily the hassidic and neo-hassidic masters, to address the texts’ deeper spiritual dimensions”; and “The Practice” – “emotional, experiential, and heart-centered spiritual practices involving visualization and breath work to help cultivate and nourish the spiritual teachings.”

The Practice for Parashat Korah, for example, was to “visualize a moment in your life where you behaved arrogantly, expressing your inner Korah.” Powerful, simple, and profound.

Even the middot, which we usually think of as “nice” qualities such as kindness and hospitality, are anything but shallow. In Lech Lecha she brings readers the midda of “taking our next step;” for Vayera, it is not simply “hospitality” but “cultivating the spiritual practice of hospitality.” For Hayei Sarah, spiritual protest.

Smith offers an uncanny reading of the latter story, based on the interpretation of a revered 20th-century Polish rabbi. The Piaseczner Rebbe asks provocatively, “If (the great, righteous) Sarah… was unable to bear such pain, how much less so can we?” The rabbi offers the radical suggestion that Sarah “died as a protest to God, in effect telling God, I choose not to live in your world anymore if I have to suffer the way I am suffering. Whatever years are in front of me, I am giving them up.”

For Vayishlah, the portion where Jacob is born clutching the heel of his twin brother, Esau, the midda offered is similarly unconventional – “transforming heel consciousness to face consciousness.” Jacob wrestles with a mysterious figure on the road to meet Esau, but he also “wrestles with his own identity… with who he is or isn’t.” Smith concludes that “the angel blesses him with a name change befitting the success of this existential encounter and marking a paradigm shift in Jacob’s consciousness. The wrestling episode springs Jacob from “heel consciousness” to “face consciousness.”

Smith makes reference to some personal life experiences that taught her the importance of second chances. She speaks of people feeling “debarred, diminished, or even less alive than others” in such settings as a Jewish school refusing admission to a child because both parents were of the same gender, or her own deaf daughter who “felt so painfully diminished by traditional communities that she left a Torah-based religious life.” She wonders, “What if, instead, people’s cries for inclusion were compassionately met by affirmations that ‘it’s never too late to be included! You absolutely have a second chance.”

After vezot habracha, the last parasha in the Torah, the book draws to an abrupt close. There is no conclusion – only 14 pages of footnotes and four pages of bibliography, which reminds us just how extensive and meticulous the author is as a researcher and scholar.

My only minor criticism of the book is a purely selfish one. I wish Smith would have written separate chapters for each of the two Torah portions frequently read as double portions in a given year. By treating Tazria-Metzora, Behar-Behukotai and the other five sometimes double parashot as one, the reader is slightly “cheated” – instead of 54 gems, we are treated to only 47 – a small price to pay for a week-by-week chance to learn from Smith’s wisdom!

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