About Us

Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi (YBZ) is an educational, cultural and academic institution established by special legislation of the Knesset in 1969, and is named after Israel’s second President. YBZ’s main goals are to study the history and legacy of Jewish communities in the East, the history of the Land of Israel, and Jerusalem. As well as promoting and facilitating research of these fields, YBZ works to impart the knowledge and information gleaned from its research to scholars, students and the general public. 

YBZ’s campus is located in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem, the site of the official Presidential residence between 1953 and 1971, and here stands the President'sl Cabin which has been recognized as a National Heritage Site. The YBZ grounds also include two academic research institutes, a library, a photo archive, an academic press, and the School for the Study of Jerusalem.

The Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East is a joint endeavor of YBZ and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is dedicated to the study of Sephardi Jewish communities and Jewish communities in the Muslim world. The Institute was founded on December 2nd, 1947, by Izhak Ben-Zvi, who studied and wrote about Jewish communities in the East. Ben-Zvi aspired to establish an international academic institute which would enrich our knowledge of Jewish communities in the Muslim world, and disseminate this knowledge via educational and cultural institutions and organizations in Israel. 

It is this vision of Ben-Zvi which guides the Institute’s activities: the Institute holds international conferences and workshops which are attended by leading scholars in the field, publishes academic books and articles – including the journals Peamim and Sefunot – and the series Jewish Communities in the East in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. All these activities are dedicated to the research and study of the historical, religious, cultural, literary and spiritual legacies of Jewish communities in the East. 

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The Institute for the Study of the Land of Israel and its Settlement is the academic body of YBZ which engages in the study of the Land of Israel, a field which was one of President Ben-Zvi’s scholarly interests. The Institute’s aims are to enhance the public’s knowledge concerning the continuity of Jewish presence in the Land of Israel; to encourage the study of the history of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel; to promote the study of Jerusalem, and to reflect the figure of Izhak Ben-Zvi as Israel’s President, as well as his activity in the Zionist movement, the Labor movement, the Yishuv and the State of Israel. The Institute publishes research about the history of the Land of Israel in the form of books and journals (Cathedra and Et-Mol) dedicated to the study of the Land of Israel and the Jewish people, and holds international conferences and seminars with the participation of leading scholars from Israel and abroad. 

Alongside the activities of these two academic institutes, YBZ holds dozens of courses, lectures, conferences and guided tours all over the country, all aimed at imparting and disseminating knowledge among the general public. The School for the Study of Jerusalem holds guided tours and activities for the educational system and various public organizations, as well activities tailored specifically for tour guides. The School publishes pedagogical materials and syllabuses and is a go-to point for anyone interested in the study of Jerusalem.

 The Library at YBZ is open to the public and specializes in two main topics: the history of the Land of Israel and its settlement, and Jewish communities in the East. The Library’s collections include academic publications; communal and religious publications issued by various communities; rare books; journals; documents, and maps. The Shoshana and Asher Halevi Photo Archive holds hundreds of thousands of images reflecting the history of the Jewish People in the diaspora and the history of the Land of Israel and its inhabitants over the last 150 years. Recently YBZ’s Department for Curatorship and Visual Documentation has led various national heritage  projects, such as Israel Revealed to the Eye – a project documenting family photo collections and making them accessible to the public; Eretz Hefetz – the documentation of heritage items in lesser-known museums in Israel and making them accessible to the public; The Survey of Mural Art – the documentation of artwork on walls in the public domain in Israel.