The Menahem Begin Heritage Center is a four-story monument to the former prime minister. Built of Jerusalem stone in 2004, it overlooks the biblical valley of Hinnom and the Old City walls. Suspended next to the entrance is a quotation from Begin: "We have returned to the land of our fathers not by the right of might, but by the might of right."

The center is an impressive tribute to one of modern Israel's most influential political figures. Its highlight is a state-of-the-art museum whose audio-visual tour guides the visitor through Begin's dramatic life, from the Soviet gulag, to the pre-state underground, to twenty-nine years in the wilderness as leader of the opposition, to the prime minister's office, to peace with Egypt, to the destruction of the Iraqi nuclear reactor, to the entanglement in Lebanon, to the death of his beloved wife and his retirement from political life. As the tour ends, the plaintive sounds of Mahler's Fifth Symphony fade into Begin's passionate declaration that Jerusalem will remain eternally united—at which point the doors open onto a striking view of Mount Zion. 

Interestingly, the Heritage Center also hosts an actual biblical site: Ketef Hinnom, or the "Shoulder of Hinnom." This is a chain of Jewish burial chambers that were carved out of the rock in the 7th century B.C.E.  In 1979, a dig conducted by the archaeologist Gabriel Barkay yielded one of the most significant finds in Israel's history: tiny rolled-up silver scrolls on whose inner surface is inscribed the Priestly Blessing—"The Lord bless you and keep you . . ." (Numbers 6:24-26)—in ancient Hebrew. These are the oldest surviving texts of the Bible—older than the Dead Sea Scrolls by roughly a half-millennium. Barkay speculates that the scrolls were originally worn "as amulets to give their wearers protection against evil."

Ketef Hinnom is thus one of the most important sites in the history of biblical archeology. Yet it suffers from serious neglect. The burial chambers lie hidden behind the Heritage Center's courtyard; you won't even find a sign pointing you in the right direction. More troublingly, the site is completely exposed to the elements, and in winter months some of the chambers are filled with standing rainwater. Trash is strewn between the graves; unattended foliage grows over the stone. 

The problem, according to the center staff, is limited resources. But you don't need a large sum of money to put up a proper sign, or any money at all to remove trash. A starker explanation may be seen in the Heritage Center's souvenir shop, where you will find plenty of books about Menahem Begin as well as the usual tourist items but nothing connected to the archaeological site—not even a replica of the Priestly Blessing.

What is one to make of this? The story of the Begin Heritage Center and Ketef Hinnom is the story of a peculiar Israeli combination of pride and blindness. Menahem Begin proclaimed the centrality of the Jewish past to the Israeli experience, but it is the Israeli hero who is honored while the irrefutable connection to the land that inspired him remains both dramatically at hand and hidden away by a casual but crippling indifference. 

The Riches of Ketef Hinnom, by Gabriel Barkay,  Biblical Archeological Review.  In his own words, the archaeologist reviews the many high points of his dig, including the most spectacular discovery of all.