This week, after five years of renewed construction and an expenditure of $100 million, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem welcomed its first visitors to the newly enlarged complex.

During the past five years museum visitors have only been able to see a very small part of the museum's unique collection of archeology, fine arts and Jewish life and art due to the complex rebuilding.

The museum originally opened its doors in 1965 during the tenure of the mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek.

LOS ANGELES — At the ballpark this summer, when you rise for the seventh-inning stretch to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” stretch a bit taller — one of the song’s writers was Jewish.

The unofficial song of America’s pastime, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” is the product of a Jewish-Episcopalian collaboration: Jewish songwriter Albert Von Tilzer wrote the melody, lyricist Jack Norworth penned the words.

Prior to writing baseball’s hit tune, the lore goes, neither had attended a ballgame.

Their famous collaboration, which is sung publicly somewhere in the US every day from mid-spring to early fall, is believed to trail only “Happy Birthday” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” as America’s most performed songs.