The Israel Museum in Jerusalem was founded in 1965 and is one of the world’s most prominent art and archeology museums with wide-ranging exhibits of Judaica, biblical archeology, fine arts, and artifacts from countries in South America, Africa, Oceania, and the Far East. The various collections embody the precious history of human culture from modern times going back nearly a million years.
The museum’s 20-acre campus encompasses several different wings offering captivating exhibits, activities that will please visitors of all ages, the lovely Billy Rose Sculpture Garden as well as special events.
Without a doubt, the Shrine of the Book, which is part of the Israel Museum, is the most popular exhibit. The distinctive onion-shaped roof was designed to look like the covers of the jars containing the Dead Sea Scrolls; they were found in Qumran in1947 and are the oldest manuscripts ever discovered.
There are also other rare manuscripts, including the 10th century Aleppo Codex which, is believed to be the most ancient complete Hebrew Bible.
Situated next to the Shrine of the Book is a model of Jerusalem reconstructing the city and the Temple before the destruction of the city by the Romans.
The impressive Billy Rose Sculpture Garden is regarded as being one of the finest current outdoor sculpture exhibitions. It includes works by celebrated artists Jacques Lipchitz, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, and David Smith and, more recently, works by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Mark Dion, James Turrell, and Micha Ullman.
There are many other interesting exhibitions, especially the Judaica wing, which includes religious objects from worldwide Jewish communities and reconstructed old Synagogues from Italy, Germany, and the newest addition, a Synagogue from Cochin, India.
The largest section of the Museum is the archeology wing which contains the world’s largest collection of artifacts found in Israel.
The Israel Museum in Jerusalem attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors, both local and tourists from abroad.