- Maya Reitan
Supervisor of Digitized Archival Material
08-659-6947
- Archivist: Ms.Leanna Feldman
08-6596956 ; 08-6596955
The archive of the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism is one of the leading archives in the country and the southern branch of the Israel State Archives. It contains more than 3 million items that reflect the history of Israel from the early twentieth century until the present day. Among these are protocols of the main organizations of the Yishuv and the State, minutes of meetings, memoranda, letters, photographs, and other documents of the various institutions in which David Ben-Gurion, the Institute’s namesake, one of the founders of the State, and its first prime minister, was active. In addition, the archive houses the personal documents of other prominent Zionist figures, such as Abba Hillel Silver and Hillel Kook, as well as a number of special collections. The archive has been a pioneer in digitalizing the documents in its possession. The entirety of David Ben-Gurion’s diaries and thousands more documents are fully searchable online.
Ben-Gurion’s diaries are undoubtedly the jewel in the crown of the archives. Ben-Gurion was a prolific writer who kept meticulous records, even copying statistics into his diaries. Their 20,000 pages, written over the course of nearly 70 years, contain invaluable research material that sheds light on the events surrounding the founding of the State and the social trends and minutiae of its development.
visit the archives website
