At a time when some in the United States are reexamining the U.S.-Israel relationship, the National Library of Israel (NLI) is going big with a concert, lectures and American items on display to celebrate the United States’ semiquincentennial.

Items in the collection, many viewable online, include a thumb-sized thimble that belonged to George Washington, applications for immigration to the U.S. that include addresses for relatives in Maryland and Washington, D.C., and a copy of the U.S. Constitution in Yiddish from 1892. They are all part of the NLI’s permanent collection, and many will be included in a major exhibition that will launch in mid-July at the NLI’s beautiful building near the Knesset in Jerusalem.

“As the library of both Israel and the Jewish people, it is fitting to celebrate this milestone,” David Makovsky, president of the board of directors of NLI-USA and a member of Kemp Mill Synagogue in Silver Spring, told Washington Jewish Week. “[The library recognizes] how America has been both central to the story of Israel — democracies that are rooted in the immigrant experience — and essential to the story of American Jews.”

Addressing the audience before a concert to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary at the NLI on June 23, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who said his family — which includes former ambassadors and a chief rabbi — have had relationships with 15 U.S. presidents, pointed out exactly why the library is an important focal point to celebrate the U.S. milestone: “Our two countries,” said Herzog, “both draw from the Book of Books.”

The concert featured the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance Student Choir and Big Band Jazz Orchestra and featured, among other American classics, songs from U.S. Jewish composer George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess” and U.S. Jewish conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein’s musical “West Side Story.”

A lecture on July 6 titled “American Jewish Life at 250 Between Memory and Possibility” featured three former Washingtonians: former Israel Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, former AIPAC Washington, D.C., staff member Wendy Singer, now head of global affairs and digital futures at the NLI, and former Hillel International Vice President for Education Rabbi Abi Dauber Sterne.

Commenting on the activities the NLI has developed to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary, Singer, whose in-laws, Max and Suzanne Singer, of blessed memory, helped found the D.C.-based Hudson Institute and was editor-in-chief of Moment Magazine, respectively, as well as beloved long-time members of Kesher Israel: The Georgetown Synagogue before they moved to Israel, told Washington Jewish Week that, “as America marks its 250th anniversary, we wanted to celebrate that remarkable history through the library’s Judaica collection — while also creating a space for thoughtful conversation about where American Jewish life is headed next.”

“Great anniversaries shouldn’t only commemorate the past,” said Singer. “They should inspire us to think about the future as well.”

Online treasures from the NLI include short videos about American Jewish history and communities, including:

• A profile of Jewish-American baseball player and World War II spy Moe Berg.
• A typed, signed statement from President Harry Truman recognizing the new State of Israel and the pen used for signing.
• An article and photo about a mosaic by Marc Chagall that once adorned a garden wall of a home in Georgetown. Before Yom Kippur, a note would be slipped under the door of the Georgetown Synagogue inviting members of the congregation to sit in the garden during their brief break between services.

Makovsky said that the library’s exhibit, lectures and concert celebrating America at 250 tells the American Jewish story as a quintessential American experience. “It demonstrates, among many things, that you can be anchored both in Jewish tradition and American democracy.”

Fran Kritz is a freelance writer.