DECEMBER 12 • 2019 | 47

Open Access

Israel’
s National Library collaborates 
with Google to digitize 120,000 books.

UNITED WITH ISRAEL STAFF

Eretz

I

n a historic collaboration 
between the National 
Library of Israel (NLI) 
and Google, some 120,000 
books will be digitized, 
the NLI announced. It will 
include all the library’
s 
collection of out-of-
copyright works that have 
not yet been digitized as 
well as every book published 
during the first 450 years of 
Hebrew printing.
About half of the books 
are in Hebrew, Yiddish and 
Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). 
The rest include a variety 
of languages such as Latin, 
English, Arabic, German and 
French.
Inclusion of these books 
“significantly increases the 
percentage of Hebrew texts 
available through Google 
Books,” noted the NLI 
statement.
“The project is part of 
the Google Books Library 
initiative, which includes 
more than 40 million 
books from more than 70 
of the greatest libraries in 
the United States, Europe 
and Japan, as well as from 
thousands of publishers. It 
includes books in over 400 
languages,” according to the 
news source NoCamels.
The Google Books project 
was launched 15 years ago. 
Its goal is to digitize every 
book throughout the world 
in order to make them 
searchable for all.
Head of library 
partnerships at Google 
Books Ben Bunnell said 

this “partnership brings a 
rich collection of Hebrew 
language materials to the 
corpus and takes us a 
significant step closer to 
realizing our mission.”
The “complex” project 
is expected to take about 
two years. It requires the 
use of state-of-the-art 
shipping containers that 
meet strict climate-control 
and security requirements 
to transport the books from 
the NLI in Jerusalem to the 
Google digitization center 
in Germany. Every book 
must then be scanned and 
returned to Jerusalem each 
month.
Included in the 
digitization process are the 
1853 book The Interpretation 
of Dreams in Zhovkva, 
Ukraine, originally published 
by Rabbi Manasseh ben 
Israel (1604-1657) in which 
the significance of dreams 
from a Jewish perspective 
is discussed, drawing from 

the Talmud, the Zohar and 
Western philosophy; The 
Five Books of Moses: Tzena 
U’
rena, a 1785 Yiddish 
translation and adaptation 
of the Torah, first written 
in 1509 and “intended 
primarily for women who 
were typically not educated 
enough to study the original 
biblical text,” according to 
NoCamels; and Sefer Me’
Am 
Loez, an 1823 collection 
of Midrash teachings of 
the sages on the Bible, 
considered the “crown jewel 
of Ladino literature,” will 
also be digitized, according 
to the statement.
Yaron Deutscher, head of 
digital access at the National 
Library of Israel, said that 
the organization was “very 
happy to be working with 
Google in fulfilling our 
mission to open access to the 
treasures of Jewish, Israeli 
and universal culture for 
diverse audiences across the 
globe.” 

Israeli National Lottery 
Bets on Saving Lives

UNITED WITH ISRAEL STAFF
T

he Israeli National 
Lottery (Mifal 
HaPayis) has invested 
NIS 5 million ($1.34 mil-
lion) to install defibrilla-
tors outside of 600 lottery 
booths throughout Israel 
to reduce deaths associated 
with cardiac arrest.
Defibrillators give an 
electric shock to the heart 
when people experience a 
cardiac incident. Studies 
show their immediate use, 
along with CPR, signifi-
cantly increases the likeli-
hood of patients regaining 
consciousness and prevents 
deterioration that results 
from delays in treatment.
“The goal of this initia-
tive is to save lives,” Avigdor 
Itzhaky, chairperson of 
Mifal Hapayis, said, accord-
ing to reports. “The deploy-
ment of defibrillators in 
the stands of Mifal Hapayis 
throughout the country 
could allow, in certain situ-
ations, immediate primary 
treatment in a public space 
and, possibly in certain sit-
uations, even save the lives 
of the sick from the most 
common cause of death in 
the country and around the 
world — heart failure.”
The devices will be avail-
able to the public, even 
when lottery booths are 
closed.
The defibrillators connect 
wirelessly to Magen David 
Adom (MDA) stations. 
Passersby can call MDA 
and receive instructions to 
help people in distress until 
an MDA professional can 
be dispatched. The defibril-
lator also has audio instruc-
tions that explain how to 
administer electric shocks 
to the patient. 

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAEL

A mid-18th century Hebrew manuscript