Dozens of personal diaries from people living through the early years of the young Jewish state (1948) have so far been handed over to the Israel National Library, as part of the "Operation Diary" project, which Israel Hayom has been following in a series of articles in recent months.

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A particularly moving diary presented recently describes the life of the immigrants on the ship Exodus. The diary, written by Miriam Sternberg Wechsler, details the agonizing challenges they went through, in a touching way.

"September 1, 1947 – one person died on one of the ships today," she writes. "In the presence of all the ships that stood still for a short while, he was lowered for burial in the Atlantic Ocean. The fourth victim, this time not from an English bullet, but by normal death. Is this normal? At the same time, about ten babies were born on these ships. If we stay on the water for another two weeks, there will be several more births."

"We were like animals?"

Sternberg Wechsler's diary was recently presented to the Israel National Library, as stated above, as part of "Operation Diary" initiated by the library and Israel Hayom, and it contains chilling testimonies about the lives of the 4,500 illegal immigrants who survived the Holocaust and left France in July 1947, heading for the land of Israel.

The ship arrived in Israel, but the British refused to allow them to disembark and settle in the country. After a fight inside the ship, in which three passengers were killed and dozens injured, the illegal immigrants were forcibly transported to deportation ships that sent them back to the shores of France. The event received enormous media coverage all over the world, and the British were condemned, following expressions of shock at their behavior. Nevertheless, the ships continued from the French coast to the displaced persons camps in Germany, and only about one year later the illegal immigrants arrived in Israel.

Miriam was only 19 years old when she boarded the ship alone after her family was murdered in the Holocaust, and her diary gives a glimpse into the daily life and inhumane conditions experienced by those on board the ship which was designed for only 600 passengers, but in fact carried thousands of women, men and children.

In another passage from the diary, she describes the unbearably difficult conditions: "19.8.1947 – These bodies, lying in terrible disarray ... the hall at night looks like after a real pogrom. Legs lying over each other, feet dirty with mud, because almost everyone is walking barefoot all day long; women, men, old people, youngsters, and children. One on top of the other, one against the other, and it often happens that you wake up at night and find your neighbor's dirty feet on your stomach, or on your chest ... and no one even notices it. As if this is how it should be. As if this is such a normal thing."

Women are lying half-naked and are not ashamed ... sometimes they exposed their most intimate parts while sleeping, and they didn't even care ... did they really not care? Were we really like animals? Has our situation reached such a level that it has killed even our most delicate and fine feelings?"

The day before she wrote: "Today there is a hunger strike on the three ships, as a sign of protest against keeping us in Port-de-Bouc. Tomorrow will mark three weeks since we arrived at this port. It is already clear to the whole world that we will not land on the shores of France, and we are demanding that we sail away from this port." The world is probably getting used to our story, and they will possibly forget us very soon. But we – we cannot forget, because every day that passes is taken away from us forever, and there is no end in sight."

Experiences of the 1948 generation

Sternberg Wechsler was born in 1926, the ninth daughter out of ten children born to Asher Zelig and Atla Zipa Sternberg. She grew up in an ultra-Orthodox home, but Jordana, her older sister who was a member of "Hashomer Hatza'ir", enrolled her in the "Yavne" school, where lessons were taught in Hebrew.

She was the only survivor of all her family members who remained in Poland, after Jordana and another sister left in time. Her parents died in the ghetto from starvation, and all the others were sent to concentration camps.

In 1946, Aliyat Hano'ar sent her to the displaced persons camp in Indersdorf, Bavaria, to teach Hebrew to children who survived the war. In July 1947 she boarded the Exodus with a group of her students. She arrived in Israel in April 1948, and after a few months joined Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael. She passed away in 2018.

Sternberg Wechsler's diary was added to about 90 diaries from the early years of the State that were presented to the National Library, as part of the project in honor of the 75^th year of the State of Israel, for the purpose of preserving them in the library's collections for future generations.

Director of Archives and Special Collections at the National Library, Matan Barzali: "We are happy to continue receiving personal diaries written in the years before and during the War of Independence [1948], as well as diaries that contain stories and experiences from the first years of the young state. These can be diaries written in Hebrew or in any other language, diaries of people who lived in Israel or in any other country – provided that they have stories about people from that generation.

The Israel National Library highly regards the preservation and documentation of history for the benefit of the future generations."

"It often happens that you wake up at night and find your neighbor's dirty feet on your stomach, or on your chest ... and no one even notices it. As if this is how it should be like. As if this is such a normal thing."

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COMMENTARY – What would you say if a senior literary editor was appointed to a position on the Judicial Selection Committee? Imagine a situation where an esteemed researcher, a professor of Hebrew literature, was invited by the IDF chief to discuss the next round of appointments to the General Staff. Are these scenarios farfetched? Anyone with a healthy sense of logic would certainly agree they are. But that is exactly what's been happening in Israel's cultural and literary scenes for years.

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Last week, the Israel National Library announced the appointment of former State Attorney Shai Nitzan as the library's rector. This is a new role that was established following the Board of Directors' decision to institute a managerial reform at the National Library.

According to the INL press release, as rector, Nitzan will manage the library's content and as such will be responsible, among other things, for its collections and physical and digital archives, and his responsibilities will include issues such as "culture, education, exhibitions, international ties and activities, public relations, and fundraising."

Is Nitzan – who from the 1980s up to his retirement in 2019, served in a number of roles within the State Attorney's Office, and has never dealt with research, curation or the management of cultural assets, and certainly not with fundraising, neither in the public or private sector, or with public relations – a suitable candidate for this new role? According to the special committee appointed by the National Library to vet candidates, the answer is yes.

In public service, vetting committees are a compromise between a tender and personal appointments. In his ruling on a petition by the Israel Women's Network in 2008, High Court Justice Edmond Levy wrote, "It is easy for a professional committee to focus on professional decisions, that is its strength, and that is its contribution to correct managerial administration."

If this is indeed the case – and assuming that the process undertaken by the committee to find a rector for the INL was completely above board – then the committee should immediately publish its professional decision in full and specify why it chose a candidate who appears to have no connection to the role, or previous experience in handling any of the fields the role demands.

 Nitzan's appointment is not the first such appointment in these parts. Critical roles in the cultural arena, particularly in the literary world, have often been filled by people devoid the relevant experience. Only last year, former deputy commander of the Israeli Air Force Giora Romm – a legendary pilot – was appointed chairman of the committee granting the Sapir Prize for Literature.

Romm, who following his retirement from the military served in a number of public roles ranging from director-general of the Jewish Agency to head of the National Road Safety Authority, is an experienced, respected and decorated figure. However, his record in public service has no connection to the world of Israeli literature, and he certainly has no professional mandate to be the decisive voice in the country's most prestigious literary prize.

Prior to Romm, the Sapir Prize Committee was headed by former Justice Ministry Director-General Emi Palmor (a graduate of the Hebrew University's Faculty of Law). Prior to that, the position was held by retired District Court Judge Orna Ben-Naftali (a professor of international law). Before Ben-Naftali it was held by Edna Kaplan-Hagler. (Full disclosure: I was a member of the prize jury during her term in 2015). Next came another law professor – Menachem Mautner.

The problem is clear for all to see: Israel's culture administrators, with the assistance of veteran of the judiciary and defense establishment, have taken the literary establishment hostage. The justification is always "prominence," "public image," and "managerial experience," but in practice, what we have here is jobs on a wholesale scale, at the expense of the literati – managers, researchers, writers – who are being methodically excluded from key positions.

Public discourse about the decline of the humanities has become something of a dead letter. The humanities have not been a "science" for a long time and the weight of knowledge and experience required for those involved in the humanities has been pushed aside for something far more important – ties at the top and the image of the judicial and defense elite as the ultimate patron, spreading its patronage over the field of culture.

Such appointment in literary institutions and prize committees are akin to the defamation of the integrity of the literati. The literary clique is "corrupt," and "takes care of its own" and therefore we shall appoint an overseer – incorruptible jurists or alternatively, a military veteran who will put the house in order.

The result of this patronage is reflected in unprofessional decisions by people who are not suitable for their roles. Moreover, it cheapens the essence of the committees and institutions and brings with it further unsuitable appointments for more junior positions.

A look overseas reveals a more cultural climate where good governance is reflected in worthy professional appointments. The current chair of the British Booker Prize jury is Maya Jasanoff, an art historian. Her predecessor was Margaret Busby, an editor and literary critic. The current head of the Pulitzer Prize Committee is Elizabeth Alexander, a poet, author and playwright. Her deputy is Nancy Barnes, a journalist who herself is a Pulitzer Prize laureate. The winner of the French Le Prix Goncourt is decided by an academic committee comprised of 10 leading authors. Its current members include well-known names, such as Pierre Assouline, Philippe Claudel and Pascal Bruckner.

Nowhere will you find a former state attorney at the helm of any of the leading national libraries in the world: The Librarian of Congress (perhaps the closest role to rector) is captained by Elizabeth Morrison, a historian who worked for many years at the institution. The head of France's Bibliotheque Nationale is Laurence Engel, a leading cultural administrator, and Germany's National Library is headed by Frank Scholze, an experienced librarian and editor of a journal in the field.

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Israel's literary establishment must overcome the Stockholm syndrome with which it has been struck and demand the restoration of their intellectual and managerial independence. The legal and judicial persona, as excellent as they may be in their respective fields, have not the slightest advantage in a managerial position in the field of culture. In fact, the very that they do compete for positions in the cultural field is an act of patronage.

Shai Nitzan and Giora Romm are just current examples that point to a worrying process that has grown stronger over the past decade. Both gained a reputation for being concerned first and foremost with proper governance, but they should have thought twice before jumping on this lucrative jobs bandwagon.

In last year's 11-judge High Court ruling on then-Prime Minister Netanyahu's tenure, Justice Daphne Barak-Erez wrote: "Those in public office have a legal and moral obligation to examine whether they are worthy and suitable for their role." Can Nitzan and Romm honestly testify they have fulfilled that duty?

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The Clinton Bailey Archive of Bedouin Culture is coming to the National Library of Israel.

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The archive includes such resources as 350 hours of interviews and recordings from Bailey's research, as well as hundreds of images, slides, and video clips documenting Bedouin tribal culture over the past half-century.

The archive presents primary-source materials from the last generation of elderly Bedouin who grew to maturity in the pre-modern period of Bedouin culture and represents a treasure trove of an orally transmitted ancient culture that researchers view as irreplaceable.

Born and raised in the United States, Bailey has made Israel his home for more than 50 years. He earned his bachelor's degree in Islamic history and culture from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1962 and got his doctorate from Columbia University in 1966.

Bailey has conducted research in the Sinai and Negev Deserts over the past five decades, establishing himself as a world-renowned expert on the Bedouin.

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According to Raquel Ukeles, head of collections at the National Library, "The irreplaceable materials in the archive will serve members of the Bedouin community interested in learning about their past, as well as scholars in Israel and abroad for generations to come. Safeguarding and opening access to these materials is central to the mission and mandate of the National Library of Israel, as we work diligently to preserve the treasures of all of Israel's communities and share them with diverse audiences locally and internationally."

The materials cover a range of facets of ancient Bedouin tribal cultures, including poems; legal trials; oral traditions and histories; and information about economic life, social organization, values, laws, religious practices, poetic creativity, and knowledge of the environment.

The materials will be made freely accessible online through a comprehensive process that will include the transcription of audio materials to make them searchable and easily accessible, cataloging their contents in Arabic and English, including explanations of specific vocabulary and customs encountered in the recordings, many of which are unfamiliar to modern scholars, the conversion of audio materials to digital files.

Full digital access to the materials will be made available via a dedicated online portal in three languages (English, Arabic, and Hebrew) and the National Library catalog.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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In 1944 Jewish Hungarian-born paratrooper Hannah Senesh was parachuted into occupied Europe by the British in a desperate attempt to save Hungarian Jews from the Nazi death camps. Captured, tortured, and executed shortly thereafter, her story and her poems have made Senesh into an iconic figure of modern Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist culture.

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The collection includes letters, diaries, songs, and poems that were found under Senesh's bed in Kibbutz Sdot Yam and writings and personal items Senesh's mother, Katherine, brought from Budapest when she came to Mandatory Palestine.

Over the past year, the complete Hannah Senesh Archival Collection has been transferred to the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, where it will be made available to the public. It includes documents from throughout Senesh's life as well as personal items such as the suitcase she took when she moved to the Land of Israel, her typewriter and camera.

Perhaps the two most moving items in the collection are a pair of notes found in her dress following her execution: the last poem she ever wrote and a personal letter to her mother.

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The library showcased the newly obtained Kafka manuscripts, diaries and letters on Wednesday after their arrival from Switzerland.

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National Library Director Oren Weinberg says he was glad that after "legal proceedings, many travels and treasure hunts" the collection is now in Jerusalem.

Kafka, a Jew who grew up in Prague in the then-Austro-Hungarian Empire, was barely known when he died in 1924, but rose to literary prominence after Max Brod, his editor, published much of his work posthumously. The remainder was held by Brod's secretary for decades.

Following decisions by Israeli and Swiss courts, the library acquired portions of Brod's cache, including the final batch unveiled on Wednesday.

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The documents, known as pinkasim, were used by European Jewish communities hundreds of years ago to keep track of financial transactions, political happenings, relations with non-Jewish government bodies, and even funny moments.

Yoel Finkelman, curator of the library's Judaica collection and manager of the project, said Tuesday that any Jewish community with a governing body had a pinkas, making the ledgers "some of the most significant documents for understanding early modern Jewish European history." He said that currently they are also some of the least accessible.

Today, the ledgers that have survived are held in various collections around the world. The first phase of the project, funded by the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe, has uploaded around 200 documents from the years 1500 to 1800. The library hopes to collaborate with other institutions to make more documents available online.

Finkelman said that during the period covered by the collection's documents, the continent saw a rise of formal bureaucracies. It also was a time in which Jewish populations lived relatively autonomously. This resulted in an era in which formal communal institutions played an important role in Jewish European life, he said.

During the 1800s, Jews became more integrated into European societies, reducing the role of communal self-governance.

Many Jews left Eastern Europe late that century to flee persecution or to seek economic opportunities abroad. Some 6 million Jews, or two-thirds of the European Jewish population, were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators in the Holocaust during World War II.

For the general public, accessing a ledger online will not necessarily make it easier to read about Jewish history. They often mixed several languages including Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish and others, at times in a single sentence. At the moment the library does not have plans to translate them.

"Putting them up online is a necessary step for them to get the attention they deserve by historians and through historians to public discourse," said Finkelman.

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