National Library of Israel hosts International Judaica Curators Conference

It’s noon on Tuesday at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. A grandmother holds a six-month-old baby, waiting for the mother to return. They have come to tour the library.

Outside stand buses, some bringing Israelis of varying ages, from school groups to seniors, to tour the new National Library (NLI) building.

Down the massive entrance hall overlooking the circular main reading hall is a registration table with a large sign: “The Fifth International Judaica Conference: Collaborative Leadership in Judaica Curating.”

Curation and archives have always played a significant role in the history of the Jewish people, whether 4,000-year-old clay tablets deciphered by scholars that give us a chance to understand our ancient origins, or digitized online Jewish historical press that provides us with insight into the recent past.

An event that impacts Jewish archives around the world

This past week, 70 professional curators of Judaica collections from many different countries convened at the library for a three-day intensive learning experience led by professionals in a variety of fields. This gathering for learning, sharing experiences, and networking aimed to make an impact on Jewish archives around the world.

The model proposed by the conference organizing team emphasized the value of shared responsibility, collaborative leadership, and teamwork. The program highlighted three relevant areas: digital collecting and curating, endangered archives, and provenance.

A key objective of the curators conference was highlighted by Dr. Raquel Ukeles, head of Collections at the library. “We gathered here in Jerusalem, curators from 15 countries, and together we seek to find ways of using the digital format, website format, to make the material in archives available to people all over the world. The tools we can use will provide methods to share the content of archives to every part of the world. The archives built from websites will tell their story without the paper collections.”

The first day of the gathering focused on making Jewish Web archives and digital collections more comprehensive, representative, and accessible.

In addressing the topic of “Libraries, Archives, and Museums in the Digital Age,” keynote speaker Prof. Peter Baldwin of UCLA and NYU, and co-founder of the Arcadia Foundation, challenged the audience to imagine a world – that is fast becoming a reality – where archives would be entirely digital, with the advantages of online preservation and availability, and the opportunities and threats presented by AI.

Shai Abend, director of La Experiencia Judía in Montevideo, Uruguay, gave a dynamic visual presentation on “Utilizing Historical Documents to Promote Jewish Heritage in Uruguay,” describing how archival materials have inspired the Jewish Uruguayans of all ages.

Day two dealt with the preservation of endangered Jewish archives, and proposed a practical model for a first-response “task-force” approach toward solutions for Jewish archives at risk.

During the session, “Collaborative Leadership to Meet the Challenges of Endangered Archives,” Dr. Lara Lempert, of the Martynas Mazvydas National Library of Lithuania, focused on the major strides being made in collecting material and making the world aware of the roots of Lithuanian Jewry waiting to be mined.

The afternoon session focused on “Documenting the Events of October 7 and Its Aftermath in Israel and the World,” in particular the challenges of digital collecting in real time.

NLI has embarked on a long-term collaborative national and global effort to document October 7 and its impact, both in Israel and in Jewish communities worldwide. The goal of this massive effort, titled “Bearing Witness,” is to preserve and make the collection accessible to researchers today and in the future.

“This is the first time an archive has been built even as a war continues,” noted Dr. Roni Mikel-Arieli, academic director of the Oral History Division at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who emphasized the need for professionalism when collecting testimonies from trauma victims.

Attorney Noa Diamond of the Privacy Clinic at Tel Aviv University, discussed the numerous issues of personal privacy that have already come to the fore in the wake of October 7.

The morning of the third day examined the impact of new digital collections on traditional libraries, followed by sessions on provenance in Judaic books and manuscripts, case studies, best practices, and the presentation of a “White Paper on Judaica Provenance.”

THE CONFERENCE’S success was guided by Ukeles, who shaped its creativity and scholarship, all of which was felt in session after session.

The conference, Ukeles stressed, “was convened so that Jewish archivists from all over the world could begin face-to-face interactions with each other. Here in Jerusalem, they will begin to hone their skills in a variety of new fields. Such an opportunity never existed previously.”

On May 23, NLI and the Heritage Ministry co-sponsored a one-day conference (in Hebrew), titled “Israeli Archives and Special Collections,” attended by select members of the Judaica curators conference.

The international Judaica curators conference is supported by the NLI and Gesher L’Europa – A Bridge to Europe, a program of Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe.

Selected portions of the conference were recorded and will be made available on the library website at www.nli.org.il