Schusterman Center for Israel Studies Research Guide

Established in 2010, the Azrieli Architectural Archive’s mission is to preserve original architectural material, advance architectural research, and promote and exhibit the heritage of Israeli architecture. To this end, the Archive collects, catalogues, and makes accessible primary sources, with particular emphasis on pre- and post-independence Israeli architecture, and Jewish architecture.

The Bauhaus Center Tel Aviv was established in 2000. Its goal is to expand public recognition of the “White City” as a unique architectural and cultural site. The center holds a gallery with a permanent collection and changing exhibitions, conducts guided tours of the city and publishes books dedicated to the subject.

Searchable archive of the buildings the organization has restored.

The Israel Dance Archive is located in the Bialik House in Tel Aviv.

Hebrew language site that provides audio and videos of Israeli folk dances.

ACUM is a non-profit corporation that administers the copyrights of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel. Through reciprocal agreements with similar collecting societies around the world International Sister Societies, ACUM manages a rich world music repertoire of millions of local and international protected music works from all genres whether instrumental or vocal.

The Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive is a Web-based access to Jewish recordings that are not commercially available from the early 1900s to the present. The collection includes many Israeli folk songs and relevant sources. To create an account, you need to contact the archive and to demonstrate a legitimate scholarly or research purpose.

Over 5000 songs, transliterated and translated into English as well as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and other languages, by volunteers worldwide. Since translations are done by volunteers, it is wise to double check them for accuracy if possible.

An archive of Hebrew songs, with lyrics, recordings, and biographical information about singers.

The website of piyut (hymn) and prayer is a unique and innovative project whose purpose is to preserve and revive traditions, songs, prayers and Jewish music that are thousands of years old. Many of them are still sung in synagogues in Israel today, and contemporary Israeli artists have recorded their own versions of these songs. The site, operating since 2005, provides the public with access to well-known and lesser-known productions alike, and spreads them daily both in Israel and across the world in order to present a multi-cultural and diverse picture.

An older version of the Invitation to Piyut (Hymnal) website, in English. The new English version is under construction.

A musical adventure of historic scope and proportion, the Milken Archive was founded in 1990 to document, preserve, and disseminate the vast body of music that pertains to the American Jewish experience. Many of the songs relate to Israel.

Originally established in 2002 as a small project dedicated to the preservation of Jewish music, the Recorded Sound Archives has matured into a robust digitization operation for all types of sound recordings. Many of the songs relate to Israel.

Hebrew only. A collection of early Hebrew music, including recordings and lyrics.

This is a curated collection of contemporary Israeli music. The playlist includes a range of Israeli music videos, with our English subtitles (approved by the artists, and with their full permission to use), a short video guide for each song, taking you through its context, its references, and offering you questions for contemplation or group discussion at the end, a printable guide for each song, primarily for those who wish to teach or run an event around the song. Finally, there is a fascinating interview with Ehud Banai about his music, and what it reveals about the Israel he sees.

Akkasah, the Center for Photography at New York University Abu Dhabi, is home to an archive of the photographic heritage of the Middle East and North Africa. The Center is dedicated to documenting and preserving the diverse histories and practices of photography from the region, and our growing archive contains at present over 33,000 images. Of special interest is the Nasri Fuleihan Collection. The Nasri Fuleihan collection includes 367 photographs, most of which were taken during Fuleihan's stay in Palestine from the late 1910s until 1924.

This is a rich collection of books, pamphlets, magazines, printed ephemera, posters, postcards, photographs, maps, architectural plans, and original documents about the early history of Tel Aviv, "The First Hebrew City." The collection was assembled over a span of 40 years by Eliasaf Robinson, a Tel Aviv native and Israel's most prominent antiquarian bookseller.

Penn's libraries are home to a wide range of special and general collections related to the Holy Land. These include primary sources such as rare manuscripts, early modern printed books, travelogues, early photographs and printed postcards, engraved and hand-illustrated maps and atlases, original archaeological artifacts, field reports, and extensive circulating secondary sources.

The House of Photography Hebrew-language website aims to make accessible to the wider public the history of photography and the contribution of photographers to society and culture in Israel and the world. 

Israel Revealed to the Eye is a community-based project that provides documentation, storage, and access to photos of Israel, the country, its people, and its history. This comprehensive project involving the visual recording and preservation of photos from private albums is carried out by volunteers, who both collect and provide documents within their communities.

The collections of the Prints & Photographs Division include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. Of special interest is the The G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, the majority of which depict Palestine (present day Israel and the West Bank) from 1898 to 1946.

This collection, which constitutes a kind of "photographed history book" of the state of Israel, holds within it photographs of principal events and people in the life of the country as they have been documented by Government Press Office photographers over the years starting with the earliest days of the state and up until the present day. It also presents photographs by additional photographers, some from before the establishment of the state, who have donated their collections for the benefit of the citizens of Israel.

This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more. We especially recommend the Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt collection for historic pictures of the region and to understand how Palestine was marketed towards a Western audience.

"Picturing Golda Meir" is a collection of photographic images documenting the life of Golda Meir. 157 images were selected from The Golda Meir Collection, 1904-1987 housed in the Archives Department of the UWM Libraries.

Full English language interface. The archive is a group of smaller collections spanning over 150 years, covering a variety of subjects and places from Ottoman era to the early years of statehood. There is a a collection of manuscripts and portraits of Jewish personalities.

The Blavatnik Archive’s poster collection includes 74 items: 73 color posters and 1 map. The posters are subdivided into four groups: Soviet propaganda posters in Yiddish and Russian (1917–1940); Soviet theater and concert posters in Yiddish and Russian (1924–1970); movie posters from the USSR and Mandate Palestine in Russian, Yiddish, French, English, and Hebrew (1926–1932); and Yugoslav anti-Semitic propaganda posters in Serbian (1941–1942).

Full English language interface. The Center's archives and collections constitute the largest and most comprehensive body of information on Jewish art in existence, with approximately 180,000 pictures, sketches and documents. Organized by country. The Israel entry is extensive.

Search for items from the Museum's permanent collection, including its famous Judaica collection.

The Information Center for Israeli Art updates artist files for 12,000 Israeli artists in house, roughly 6000 of which are online. The center also contains important and unique archival collections of galleries and artists.

A collection of posters dating from the 1900s to the present dealing with Jewish and Palestinian nationalism. Searchable by iconography, artist, and date.

This site gathers together some 280 samples of rabbis on stamps, many of which were issued in Israel.

Wall art is a part of the landscape in Israel. The works of art – including paintings, reliefs, mosaics, and a range of other techniques and styles – grace the walls of cultural institutions, public and religious buildings, hotels, and private homes, both inside and out. The object of the Israel wall-art survey is to classify and bring together in a single place the many examples in the country, some of which are threatened with destruction and oblivion, and to form a comprehensive database collected with the cooperation of the public.