Educate

The National Library of Israel is at the forefront of educational innovation in Israel and the Jewish world, and each year many thousands of schoolchildren visit the Library to participate in educational programs, enabling them to explore their heritage and culture in fun and stimulating ways. The NLI also works to develop initiatives with and for teachers in Israel and worldwide based on Library sources and resources.

NLI’s Israel National Center for Humanities Education, developed in close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Education, now serves as the central hub for Israeli teacher training programs and pedagogical enrichment initiatives for educational excellence in the humanities. The Center’s programming will ensure that quality NLI content reaches a significant portion of Israel’s schoolchildren from all sectors of the population in the coming years.

The following are some examples of NLI's work in education:

New Chapter: Days of the Bible Conference

In summer 2018, nearly 600 teachers from the Israeli public school system gathered at the National Library for a conference focused on rethinking the teaching of tanach (Bible studies) to Israeli youth, and celebrating the launch of NLI’s Israel National Center for Humanities Education. The second annual conference took place in July 2019. The New Chapter: Days of the Bible conference is a collaboration with the Ministry of Education, 929 (Tanakh B’yachad), and Israel’s Center for Educational Technology, and has included sessions with leading figures such as Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Rabbi Benny Lau, Dr. Micah Goodman, National Library experts, and many others. Its popular success has helped to position NLI as a leader in the field of teacher enrichment and training in the humanities.

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Jerusalem Curator Program

The Jerusalem Curator program exposes students from both Jewish and Arab schools to NLI collections and gives them the opportunity to research a subject and create a work of art or video inspired by Library holdings. Participants choose a topic of personal interest around a certain theme (past themes have included “Jerusalem” and “Recreation and Leisure”) and then work in mixed media with student and National Library mentors. At the end of the program, the projects are displayed at the Library, in the children's communities, and online, with tours of the exhibitions for family and friends and the general public.

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“My Favorite Item”

Teachers Talk About NLI Primary Sources in the Classroom

At the core of the National Library education website is a database of hundreds of primary source materials from the Library collections, carefully selected by educators to suit Israeli educational needs, with detailed information and suggestions for how to integrate items into lesson plans.

Education at NLI>

Pocket Library

The Pocket Library Hebrew-language audio book program is a project of the Israel National Center for Humanities Education in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. Currently in its second year, this initiative aims to deepen and broaden Israeli middle-school students’ exposure to and appreciation of literary works. The Pocket Library program will reach some 5000 students in 160 classes throughout Israel. over the 2019-20 school year.

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