The museum was the vision of Teddy Kollek, Jerusalem's legendary mayor, who drove its establishment in 1965 -- just seventeen years after the founding of the state itself. For a young country still absorbing waves of immigrants, the decision to build a world-class museum was an act of cultural ambition that bordered on audacity. Kollek assembled an international coalition of donors and recruited architect Alfred Mansfeld and landscape designer Dora Gad to create a campus that would blend into the Judean Hills. The original design grouped low-rise pavilions along a ridge, connected by walkways that followed the natural contour of the land. The museum opened on May 11, 1965, with holdings that already spanned archaeology, fine art, and Jewish cultural artifacts -- the nucleus of a collection that would grow to fill eleven curatorial departments.

The Shrine of the Book was designed by Armand Bartos and Frederick Kiesler, and funded by the family of Hungarian-American philanthropist David Samuel Gottesman. Its iconic white dome, shaped to echo the lids of the clay jars in which the scrolls were found in caves near Qumran between 1947 and 1956, stands in deliberate contrast to a black basalt wall opposite it -- representing the battle between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness described in the scrolls themselves. Inside, the Great Isaiah Scroll, the most complete of the ancient manuscripts, is displayed in a circular case beneath the dome. The shrine also houses rare medieval biblical manuscripts and other artifacts from the Second Temple period. An elaborate seven-year planning process preceded its construction, reflecting both the scrolls' cultural weight and the technical challenges of preserving two-thousand-year-old parchment.

Beyond the scrolls, the museum's holdings are staggering in their range. The Archaeology Wing houses what is considered the world's most comprehensive collection of Holy Land archaeology, from Neolithic tools to Crusader-era ceramics. The Fine Arts Wing spans European Old Masters, Impressionism, and contemporary art across departments covering Israeli art, photography, design, and Asian art. The Billy Rose Art Garden, designed by Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, places works by Picasso, Rodin, and Henry Moore against the backdrop of the Jerusalem hillside -- an outdoor gallery where ancient landscape and modern sculpture exist in quiet dialogue. In the Jewish Art and Life Wing, synagogue interiors transported whole from Italy, Germany, India, and Suriname have been reconstructed, preserving architectural traditions from communities that no longer exist. The museum also houses a 1:50 scale model of Jerusalem as it appeared in 66 CE, just before the Roman destruction, offering visitors a panoramic view of the city that produced many of the artifacts inside.

The Israel Museum operates under financial constraints unusual for an institution of its stature. The Israeli government provides only 10 to 12 percent of its operating budget, leaving the museum to raise the remaining 88 percent through private donations, endowment income, and earned revenue -- all while paying 17.5 percent VAT and real-estate taxes on its campus. A major renovation completed in 2010, designed by James Carpenter Design Associates and Efrat Kowalsky Architects, reorganized the campus circulation, added new gallery space, and introduced natural-light elements that transformed the visitor experience. The $100 million capital project was funded almost entirely through private philanthropy. Despite these pressures, the museum has continued to expand its collection and programming, drawing roughly 800,000 visitors annually to a hilltop that Teddy Kollek first envisioned as a cultural anchor for a nation still finding its footing.