Givat Haviva Institute
The Peace Library
Dedicated in March 2001 and run by professional Jewish and Arab co-directors, the Sarah and Yaacov Eshel Peace Library at Givat Haviva incorporates under one roof collections which had previously been scattered throughout the campus.
The Peace Library serves a clientele from a broad range of backgrounds:
- Advanced degrees students, Israeli and foreign researchers;
- Israeli IDF soldiers in special matriculation programs;
- Jewish and Arab college students from the villages and towns in the region;
- Participants in the one-year Arabic Language and Culture Course;
- Students of the Givat Haviva Arts Center and the Open University branch;
- Participants in teacher enrichment courses and programs;
- The general public.
The Peace Library is the largest reservoir in Israel of Hebrew, Arabic and English documents, articles and press clippings relating to the State's Palestinians and Arab citizens.
Other significant collections are from the Moreshet Holocaust Study and Research Center, containing books, albums, original documents and written testimonies relating to the Holocaust.
The central collection, created some 50 years ago, includes books and periodicals dealing with education, psychology and sociology, Judaism, Zionism and the Land of Israel, the Labor Movement in Israel and around the world, and the Kibbutz Movement.
The Peace Library has, in recent years, received the private collections of Abie Nathan, internationally known for his peacemaking efforts, and of Shaike Weinberg, who was instrumental in the establishment of the Diaspora Museum in Tel-Aviv and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
Altogether the library houses approximately 70,000 titles, as well as 400 different journals in various languages. Most of the books and other resources have been catalogued in the computer system.