“Every­thing is impor­tant!” shout­ed Joseph Chasanowich (1844−1919) at a young his­to­ri­an. ​“Every­thing!” Chasanowich, a Pol­ish physi­cian, bib­lio­phile, and Zion­ist, made it his mis­sion to col­lect all and any books and oth­er mate­r­i­al from Europe and for­ward them to Jerusalem toward his goal of estab­lish­ing a Jew­ish nation­al library.

Despite the wealth of Jew­ish cul­ture and writ­ings over the cen­turies, there was nev­er a library of Jew­ish hold­ings. Most mate­r­i­al rest­ed in pri­vate col­lec­tions and study hous­es, offering­ing lit­tle access to the pub­lic. Ear­ly attempts to start a pub­lic library in Jerusalem nev­er got off the ground, but in 1892, the Midrash Abar­banel Library opened, and it was here that Chasanowich sent his trove, some 22,000 volumes.

Over its his­to­ry, the library has had sev­er­al homes. But even in the face of dis­rup­tions and relo­ca­tions, the library con­tin­ued to col­lect. In the 1930s, refugees from Europe brought archival mate­r­i­al, and after the war, a com­mit­tee went to Europe to assess the more than two mil­lion loot­ed books that the U.S. Army col­lect­ed. The library also sal­vaged books and oth­er mate­r­i­al left behind in 1948 when Pales­tini­ans fled. Today the library’s four divi­sions rep­re­sent its scope — Judaica, Israel, Islam and the Mid­dle East, and gen­er­al humanities.

The his­to­ry of the library is a sto­ry of deter­mi­na­tion and ded­i­ca­tion. 101 Trea­sures from the Nation­al Library of Israel marks the cul­mi­na­tion of that his­to­ry and its ongo­ing mis­sion in the estab­lish­ment of the library’s new home in the Nation­al Quar­ter of Jerusalem. This lav­ish over­sized vol­ume takes read­ers on a jour­ney through the library’s riches.

Each pho­to­graph opens a new door. Here, in her own hand­writ­ing, are pages from Han­nah Szenes’s diary and her last note to her moth­er; a col­lec­tion of Israeli Rosh Hashanah cards span­ning 1902 to 1960; a six­teenth-cen­tu­ry Ethiopi­an prayer book ded­i­cat­ed to the Vir­gin Mary, with a charm­ing paint­ing of Mary and Jesus; a four­teenth-cen­tu­ry illu­mi­nat­ed man­u­script from Mai­monides’ Mish­neh Torah as well as pages from his Com­men­tary on the Mish­nah in his own hand; hasti­ly drawn sketch­es from the Six-Day War; Theodor Herzl’s post­cards to his daugh­ter from Jerusalem. It is almost impos­si­ble to stop turn­ing the pages from one com­pelling arti­fact to the next. The vari­ety and breadth of sub­jects are both daz­zling and infor­ma­tive, telling much about the goals of the library.

The qual­i­ty of this vol­ume is notable, the excep­tion­al pho­tographs print­ed on supe­ri­or paper. Each is accom­pa­nied by a brief descrip­tion writ­ten by a schol­ar on the sub­ject. An inter­est­ing note is the prove­nance of the items, speak­ing to the extra­or­di­nary scope of the muse­um. An out­stand­ing trib­ute to Chasanowich and the oth­er ear­ly col­lec­tors whose vision has been realized.