Day 56 of 599 of מלחמת העצמאות MILḤEMET HAʾAẒMAʾUT (War of Independence)

Raymond B. Fosdick, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, had written on 9 January to the authorities involved in the country's future. The commission circulated his letter on 24 January. He invoked the foundation's earlier work to protect cultural objects during World War II and described the museum as holding material from Arab history and the history of עם ישראל AM YISRAʾEL, with a library, laboratories and space for researchers.¹

The museum's exact institutional name is source-owned. Its collections were part of the country's material history, including the history of עם ישראל AM YISRAʾEL; protecting them was a concrete question of custody, physical safety and access to knowledge.

Fosdick framed the objects as part of the:

common heritage of civilization²

He asked the authorities to safeguard the building and its contents and to provide competent continuing administration under the government that would control the area. The letter recalled the terms associated with the museum's earlier funding. It did not appoint a new governing body, transfer ownership or certify that the collections were secure.

The commission was considering what would survive a change of government. Cultural custody joined policing, services and security among the responsibilities that could not simply lapse when the English Empire withdrew. Circulating the letter placed that concern before the body charged with implementing the UN resolution.

The record gives no basis for adding museum casualties, evacuated households or destroyed objects to the war's totals. Its significance lies in a documented effort to preserve an institution and its contents during a dangerous transition.

This is Day 56 of the 599-day civil-date series: 1948-01-24. Its public Ivrit route is 5708-11-13; after local sunset the adjacent Hebrew route is 5708-11-14.

The commission's cover sheet is dated 24 January 1948, the daily event anchor. The attached Fosdick letter is dated 9 January. The online catalog's publication field also displays 9 January, but that does not override the separate circulation date printed in the document. No circulation hour is given, so its exact local sunset boundary is unknown.³

• What responsibilities for cultural custody can be endangered by a transfer of government?
• How do the date of a letter and the date it is circulated establish different events?