(MENAFN) A classified facility at Harvard University is dedicated to collecting all materials published in Israel to preserve the nation’s cultural and scientific heritage in the event the country ceases to exist, Israeli media reported Sunday.

The report, published by Haaretz under the headline “At a Secret Harvard Site, a Massive Archive of Israeliana Is Preserved – in Case Israel Ceases to Exist,” noted that the archive holds tens of thousands of works spanning multiple disciplines that represent Israeli culture, all cataloged and stored in extensive underground spaces.

Israeli poet and novelist Haim Be’er told the newspaper that organizers of a late-1990s literary conference at Harvard brought him to what he called an “extraordinary place.” He said the building appeared like a Greek temple from the exterior before leading him into a vast basement.

Be’er described entering “a massive space filled with printed materials,” observing young women working continuously at computers, each documenting items not commonly found in academic libraries.

He said the archive contained “synagogue pamphlets, kibbutz newsletters, memorial booklets for fallen soldiers, Simchat Torah flags, advertisements and political campaign materials.”
Harvard has not commented on the report.

Haaretz said that Harvard staff regard these items not as marginal ephemera but as important social records reflecting shifts in Israeli society, language, politics, and religion over time.

The report described the archive as not a conventional academic project but an “alternative memory system” for Israel, noting its independence from Israeli government institutions provides additional security in case of national crises.

Be’er, who visited the archive, called it a “full backup of Israeli culture,” explaining that storing the materials in the United States acts as a kind of “civilizational insurance” to preserve Israel’s cultural and social history in a politically stable environment.

The report said the project was spearheaded by Jewish scholar Charles Berlin, who was appointed in the 1960s to lead a new Harvard division devoted to documenting Jewish life and culture across generations.

Harvard librarians noted that the division currently holds approximately one million archival items, each potentially containing dozens or hundreds of documents, tens of thousands of hours of audio and video recordings, and at least six million images, the report added.

Haaretz cited Moshe Mosk, who led Israel’s state archive from 1984 to 2008, as saying he declined to share sensitive collections with Berlin, feeling uneasy about the premise that Israel might not endure.

Israeli writer Ehud Ben-Ezer, who also collaborated with Berlin, said the scholar faced intense criticism, including from a young Israeli historian who accused him of documenting Israel out of doubt over its future.

He added that Berlin believed the initiative did not need a catastrophe to justify its existence, noting that archives in Israel are exposed to risks from floods, fires, or neglect due to inadequate storage conditions.

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