ABSTRACT
This entry presents three cultural institutions—libraries, museums and archives—in Israel, against the backdrop of the international Jewish Diaspora and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, as an immigrant absorbing nation, where foreign powers previously ruled (the Ottoman Empire until 1917 and the British Mandate from 1917 to 1948). In this historical and governmental context (with its legislative, municipal, social and cultural ramifications), the entry traces the development of these three institutions and paints an up-to-date portrait of their current situation.
