Israeli History
It is difficult, if not impossible, to understand Israel today without understanding its history. Explore
the resources below to
learn about the people, movements, events, and ideas that have shaped Israel and the region.
Start Here:
National Library of Israel
The National Library of Israel (NLI) offers a great starting point for learning about Israeli
history. It
covers Jewish history, the Land of Israel, Zionism, the Mandate, the State of Israel, wars, and
Israeli society. NLI's digital collections include manuscripts, photographs, maps, archives,
recordings, and historical Jewish, Hebrew, and Arabic press.
Center for Israel Education
The Center for Israel Education offers an easy-to-navigate, comprehensive database of modern-Israel
history. It allows users to filter by era, topic, resource type, and language, with timelines,
documents, biographies, explainers, videos, audio, maps, and historiography.
Jewish Virtual Library History Wing
The Jewish Virtual Library's History Wing offers comprehensive timelines of ancient Jewish history,
Israeli history, and modern Jewish history.
Go Deeper:
Israel State Archives
The Israel State Archives are a compilation of government documents,
photographs, recordings, maps, immigration records, diplomatic
materials, and documents from the pre-state period through modern
Israel. The website in Hebrew has a larger catalog, and can be found
here.
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Rememberance Center, is an especially useful resource for
understanding Holocaust history and its connection to modern Israel.