ISRAEL MUSEUM

Hebrew Muse'on Yisra'el, museum in Jerusalem opened in 1965 and consisting of the Bezalel National Art Museum, the Samuel Bronfman Biblical and Archaeological Museum, a Youth Wing, the Shrine of the Book, and The Billy Rose Art Garden. The Shrine of the Book houses the Dead Sea Scrolls in a building whose pagoda-like dome is reminiscent of the shape of the ancient jars in which the scrolls were found in 1947. The Archaeological Museum is actually 15 connected pavilions showing finds from excavations in Israel. The gates to the ancient city of Hazor are reconstructed in one pavilion, and another shows some fine Palestinian ceramics. The Bezalel Museum is devoted to various religious and ethnographic objects such as Hannukka lamps and costumes. There is also an 18th-century synagogue from Vittorio Veneto, near Venice. The display in the Billy Rose garden is of modern and abstract sculpture. The economy A diamond inspector at the National Diamond Center in Israel. The increase in the Jewish population was the most distinctive cause of the rapid rise in the gross national product after 1948. Although most immigrants had to change occupations, a nucleus of highly skilled labour facilitated economic expansion. The establishment and rapid growth of institutions of higher learning and research helped increase the nation's potential. Large amounts of capital arrived in the form of money involving no financial obligation by the state. This included gifts from world Jewry, reparations from the Federal Republic of Germany for the persecution of Jews by Adolf Hitler, grants-in-aid from the U.S. government, and capital brought in by immigrants. It has been supplemented by loans and commercial credits and by foreign investment. The goals of economic policy are continued economic growth, the reinforcement of a competitive capacity, and further integration of Israel's economy with the world economy. Progress toward these goals has been made under difficult conditions, which have included a rapid increase of population; a boycott and a blockade by the neighbouring Arab countries except, from 1979, Egypt; heavy expenditure on defense; a scarcity of natural resources, including water; a high standard of living; inflation; and a restricted home market that limits the economies of methods of mass production. The most significant economic divisions among Israeli Jews are between Sefardim and Ashkenazim, the former tending to be poorer and less educated than the latter, as well as underrepresented in higher office. Arabs are generally in the lower socioeconomic categories. Resources Mineral resources Mineral resources include potash, bromine, and magnesium, the last two of which are obtained from the waters of the Dead Sea; copper ore, which is located in the ha-'Arava Valley; phosphates and small amounts of gypsum in the Negev; and some marble in Galilee. There are oil deposits in the northern Negev and south of Tel Aviv and deposits of natural gas also in the northern Negev and northeast of Beersheba. Limited exploitation of oil began in the 1950s. The land Relief Crops and fish farms in the Hula Basin, Israel. Israel may be divided into four natural regions: (1) the Mediterranean coastal plain, (2) the hill regions of northern and central Israel, (3) the Great Rift Valley, and (4) the Negev. The coastal plain is a narrow strip about 115 miles (185 kilometres) long, widening to a breadth of about 20 miles in the south. In the north of the country, the mountains of Galilee constitute the highest part of Israel; their highest point is Mount Meron, or (in Arabic) Jebel Jarmaq (3,963 feet [1,208 metres]). To the east these mountains terminate in an escarpment overlooking the Great Rift Valley. The mountains of Galilee are separated from the hills of Samaria and Judaea to the south by the Plain of Esdraelon ('Emeq Yizre'el), which, running approximately northwest to southeast, connects the coastal plain with the Great Rift Valley. The Mount Carmel range, which culminates in a 1,791-foot peak, reaches northwest from the hills of Samaria and Judaea almost to the coast of Haifa. The Great Rift Valley, a long fissure in the Earth's crust, begins beyond the northern frontier of Israel and runs the length of the country to the Gulf of Aqaba. The Jordan River, which forms part of the frontier between Israel and Jordan, runs southward from Dan on Israel's northern frontier, where it is 500 feet above sea level, first into 'Emeq Hula (Hula Basin), then into the freshwater Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Tiberias or Yam Kinneret (689 feet below sea level), and finally into the highly saline Dead Sea, which is about 1,312 feet below sea level and which represents the lowest point of a natural landscape feature on the Earth's surface. The Negev, in the southern part of Israel, forms an arrow-shaped wedge of territory that comes to a point at the port of Elat (Eilat) on the Gulf of Aqaba. Drainage The principal drainage system is represented by the Jordan River. Other principal rivers in Israel are the Yarqon, which empties into the Mediterranean near Tel Aviv; the Qishon, which runs through the western part of the Plain of Esdraelon to drain into the Mediterranean at Haifa; and a small section of the ha-Yarmuk, a tributary of the Jordan. The remaining streams, usually seasonal, flow through streambeds called wadis. The people Groups historically associated with the contemporary country Pedestrians on a sidewalk in West Jerusalem. Jews constitute more than four-fifths of the total population, Muslims about one-seventh, and Christians, Druze, and others the remainder. Jews In origin, as well as in physical features, the Jewish population lacks uniformity. Immigrants differed in racial origin and culture and brought with them languages and customs from a variety of countries. Consciousness of geographic origin and descent is, however, gradually being superseded by a national consciousness, especially among the young. Religious Jewish groups immigrating to Israel generally continue to pray in the synagogues of their respective communities. The two main religious groupings are formed by those who follow the Ashkenazic rite (of Jews from central and eastern Europe and their descendants in other parts of the world) and those who follow the Sefardic and Oriental rite (of Jews from the Mediterranean region and from the Middle and Far East). Thus there are traditionally two chief rabbis in Israel, one Ashkenazi and one Sefardi. Religious Jewry in Israel constitutes a significant and articulate section of the population. Disputes often arise between this group and a strong movement that seeks to prevent religious bodies and authorities from dominating national life.