Project Ben-Yehuda (PBY) is a volunteer driven initiative, established in 1999 by Israeli software developer Asaf Bartov. The project strives to digitally conserve the treasures of Hebrew literature, creating an online library of Hebrew works that are available to the public for free, without advertising.
The project’s main goals are to preserve Hebrew works, to make them accessible to the public, and to expose them to new readers, encouraging engagement with them. The website is frequented by students, researchers, teachers, and all manner of literature lovers, with over 90,000 visitors each month. Such connection with the literature of former generations is crucial for a rich, living Hebrew culture.
The process begins with our editorial board, as they work to identify writers whose works are in the public domain, or have given the project permission to publish. For each writer, we assemble a complete bibliography; the works are then tracked in various libraries throughout the country, scanned, and the images are uploaded to our online task management system. Volunteers log in to the system, receive their typing or proofreading assignments, and begin the work of transcribing the image files into text documents. The typed and proofread materials are prepared for Web publication by our staff, and are added to the Project Ben-Yehuda online library site, where they are available to the public.
Project Ben-Yehuda is fundamentally and deliberately volunteer-based. The work is carried out by hundreds of volunteers, from their own home computers, and supported by our one paid employee, funded by donations.
We are constantly improving our technological capabilities, offering adavnced features for our users. This year we added a new infrastructure, including monitoring components, that engages the public in tagging writers and works in the database.
Beyond creating a digital library of Hebrew literary works, PBY engages in several other initiatives to support cultural preservation:
- Lectures - we host lectures about the project, as well as how it relates to other open-content projects, such as Wikipedia. We explain the principles of the project, its various uses, and its cultural significance. Watch one of our lectures here.
- The Dictionary Initiative - our volunteers are hard at work, transcribing the Ben-Yehuda Dictionary, written by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda himself, and now public domain. Each definition undergoes 3 separate rounds of proofreading before it is published. And so, the online version of the dictionary grows, one definition at a time.
- Taped Readings Initiative - notable Hebrew scholars, writers, and poets read selected works from the Project Ben-Yehuda library. These videos are shared on our YouTube channel.
- Writing contests – We are currently holding a writing contest, inviting writers to submit literary works that are in dialogue with works in the library.
Plans for the future:
- Anthologies and magazines - adding support for heterogeneous collections of texts
- Audiobooks library - recorded audio versions of texts from our library
- Commentary and notes layers - readers and researchers expressed their wish for a means of adding private notes and public annotations to the texts in PBY. Such annotations can provide clarification for obscure words or phrases, offer information and historical context, or raise questions and discussion points pertaining to the texts.
We receive tax-deductible donations in Israel, the US and the UK, through The Hebrew Literature Digitization Society - a non-for-profit organization supporting Project Ben-Yehuda. You can find more details about the organization in GuideStar Israel.
The funds we raise support the following categories:
- Technological development
- Events - public engagement with the library.
- Employing an executive director, who oversees strategic planning, public relations, event, new initiatives and partnerships, and fundraising.
- Cloud hosting and storage expenses.
Volunteering: join us as a volunteer. For volunteering options, please fill our volunteer form.
