The AVI CHAI Foundation is a private educational foundation that focuses on the perpetuation of the Jewish people, Judaism,  and the centrality of the State of Israel to the Jewish people. If was founded and endowed by Zalman C. Bernstein. It supports a myriad of institutions, organizations and projects all connected to the continuity of the Jewish people.

CAMERA Founded in 1982, CAMERA the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is a media-monitoring, research and membership organization devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East. According to its website, CAMERA is a non-partisan organization,  that takes no position with regard to American or Israeli political issues or with regard to ultimate solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict.  CAMERA’s website offers a wide variety of collected news articles, op-eds and scholarly analyses relating to the Middle East and Israel. With their focus being on media analyses, their website acts as both a recommended news reading list as well as a forum for presenting intelligent examinations of the sources themselves.

The David Project is an Israel advocacy organization that provides training and resources for high school and college students to empower them to be persuasive advocates on behalf of Israel.

Eye on Israel is an interactive map of Israel that allows users to navigate the country, zoom in on cities and towns, and view the land through the lens of different time periods.

The Israel Collection covers several subject areas: Zionism; the Arab-Israeli conflict; social and historical issues; Israel in international relations; tourism; the arts; minority groups; archaeology  literature about Israel in languages other than Hebrew; Hebrew literature translated into other languages; journalism; Israel-related official publications issued by international organizations such as NATO and the United Nations.  The Israel Collection includes newspapers, periodicals, maps, audio-visual material, posters, films, DVDs, ephemera, photographs, and the personal archives of prominent individuals in the fields of culture, philosophy and art. The photo and map collections, along with the book library in multiple languages are simply a joy to peruse.

JAFI has served as the link between Israel and the world Jewish Diaspora for more than eighty years.  In addition to providing services for aliyah and rescue and re-settlement, JAFI runs the Partnership2Gether (which pairs communities in Israel with Jewish communitities in the Diaspora) project and offers a variety of educational resources.

While traditionally thought of as the place to go to plant trees in Israel, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) website also has educational resources and programs including ideas for Israel themed tzedakah projects, games, puzzles, and projects for a variety of ages.

The Lookstein Center for Jewish Education is a membership organization located at Bar –Ilan University in Israel that promotes Jewish education in the Diaspora through professional development and leadership programs, curriculum development and networking for Jewish educators.

Oranim Academic College is the largest teacher training college in Northern Israel, and the Shdemot Center for Jewish peoplehood offers a wide variety of educational services, including school trip organization, kibbutz family experiences, and school twinning programs.

Stand With Us was originally established to combat anti-Israel bias in general, it now focuses on the campus primarily. It has grown into an international Organization with 18 offices in five countries. According to their site, they seek “to explain Israel’s actions to the public, help college students, deal with ill-informed journalists, or sponsor public demonstrations.” Its site contains information about the organization’s initiatives and booklets and brochures about Israeli politics and advocacy.

TaL AM Hebrew and Heritage Curriculum covers Hebrew language, Bible, and prayer, as well as introductions to rabbinic literature and Jewish history in the older grades. The subject areas are spiraled and aligned to facilitate multi-lateral reinforcement of vocabulary, language skills, thinking and learning skills, and the thematic integration of concepts and values. It was developed by the Bronfman Jewish Education Center in Montreal and is used in over 400 day schools worldwide.

Time Travel – Israeli ephemera from the Yishuv forward, a collaborative project of the National Library at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The objective of the “Time Travel” project is to collect and scan Israeli ephemera and make them accessible to the general public. The project is sponsored by the Arcadia Fund and is a collaborative undertaking with UCLA. Some 25,000 ephemeral items have been scanned to date. Major topical areas collected include material about the Army, Sports, Excursions, Holidays, Book Publishers, Culture, Economy, Election Propoganda, Authorities and Organizations.

Most Israelis enjoy an occasional foray into the Palestine of their grandparents, be it in Ottoman times, under the British Mandate, or in the early years of the State. Such journeys into the past are usually taken via books and films, though these often fall short of an authentic portrayal of the past. They present a filtered, rather than unmediated, account of everyday life and the public domain of the region.

A more reliable reflection of the reality at the time might be found in historical press resources, such as those available on the National Library’s JPress site. Nevertheless, as we know, even the most diverse and dynamic of newspapers ultimately offer only a subjective perspective on social and cultural circumstances that prevailed at the time of their publication. Ephemera however, have the potential to provide us with a truly unmediated and authentic picture.

Ephemera
The term “ephemera” derives from the Greek word for things that last only a day. It is now used to refer to publications that were originally intended for short term use only: posters, publicity and advertising flyers, bookmarks and any other printed matter not produced for posterity. And therein lies the power of ephemera: these everyday items can be used to piece together the social norms, intellectual and political trends, cultural products, religious customs and economic realities of the time.

A glance at our surroundings, from bulletin boards, to mailboxes, storefront signs and more, illustrates the degree to which ephemera reflect public life on every level. From government agencies and large organizations to small, localized initiatives, ephemera are in evidence in all walks of life and every part of the country. Along this spectrum, different perspectives on various aspects of our lives are on display. This remains true, even today when so much of our public existence is mediated by the Internet, and it was most certainly the case in generations past.

The Project
The objective of the “Time Travel” project is to collect and scan Israeli ephemera and make them accessible to the general public. The project is sponsored by the Arcadia Fund and is designed to include active public participation, not merely to deliver a final product. The National Library invites individuals who have collections of ephemera to make contact so that their collections can be integrated in the project, either physically or via digital reproduction. The public is also asked to assist in gathering information about such collections. All those who are interested in the documenting of Israeli society and culture are invited to participate in the National Library’s efforts to gather contemporary ephemera. The project will involve recruitment of volunteers to describe and classify the ephemera uploaded to the Internet, as a means of drawing on the entire public’s vast knowledge resources.
The main stages of the project are:
• Mapping of ephemera resources and collections all over the country –documentation organizations, archives, and private collections
• Digital scanning of ephemeral items
• Provision of public access to the times
• Public involvement in characterization of items
The project will take place over three years, and process 150,000 ephemeral items.
The project is a collaborative undertaking with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), a world leader in the collection and scanning of ephemera.