A new online database — called GuideStar Israel — has been started in Jerusalem with the goal of making the 29,000 nonprofit organizations in Israel “more transparent” to the public through financial and other information.

A free Web site, which is in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, lists and provides official information about each nonprofit registered with the Israeli government’s Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations. The site also allows groups, some of them so small they do not have a Web presence, to give additional “in-depth information” about themselves.

GuideStar Israel is a joint project of the government’s Ministry of Justice, Yad Hanadiv (which acts in Israel on behalf of the Rothschild family philanthropic trusts), and JDC-Israel. It is operated by NPTech, a nonprofit “public benefit” group established by Yad Hanadiv and JDC-Israel that helps organizations use information technology.

GuideStar Israel was created in conjunction with GuideStar International, an organization registered in Britain.