The State of Israel has begun the process of publishing its collection online. You can visit the site at http://www.archives.gov.il. This is  no small task, as the archive houses more than 400 million documents, video and audio clips, many of them classified. The archive was established in 1949.

The archives do not currently have an English-language interface, but Google translate is helpful.

I went to the website and immediately had a good find – my grandfather’s passport, featuring a beautiful photo of him with my Nana. Additionally, I found a letter written by my father to the Department of Migration on their behalf dated October 16, 1947. At the time of their migration, they were living in Bucharest, Romania.