Jewish Museum of Belgium
The Jewish Museum of Belgium ( French Musée juif de Belgique , Dutch Joods Museum van Belgïe ) is a museum in Brussels dedicated to the documentation, conservation and exhibition of socio-cultural Jewish life in Belgium . The museum houses, spread over two buildings, a permanent exhibition, a library, a temporary exhibition and conference rooms.
history
The idea of founding a Jewish museum emerged in the late 1970s and was based on two motifs. On the one hand, there was a lack of a Jewish museum dealing with history and art, although Judaism has been present in Belgium since the Middle Ages. On the other hand, there were few public collections.
As part of the celebrations around Belgium's 150th birthday in 1979, Baron Bloch, then President of the Central Council and, alongside his successor in the same office, Baron Schnek, suggested organizing an exhibition on the art and history of Belgian Jewry . Spurred on by the success of this event, a small group was founded in 1981 to put together a collection, establish a financial basis and purchase a property. In the mid-1980s, official support was finally obtained. Initially, the Ministry of Labor and Finance , and later the French and Flemish-speaking communities and the regions, pledged their support.
The work continued in makeshift premises on Rue de Stalingrad / Stalingradstraat, which were provided by the Central Council and were located above the Beth Israel Synagogue . The museum has assembled its collection since 1990 and installed its first permanent exhibition there. In 2005, the company finally moved to its current premises in Rue des Minimes / Miniemenstraat.
Attack in May 2014
On May 24, 2014, four people were killed in an attack in the building in the Sablon district . The crime occurred at 3:50 p.m. when the perpetrator entered the building at 21 rue de Minimes with a backpack and weapons. The victims are two men and two women: an Israeli couple who were visiting the museum as tourists, a French intern and a Belgian museum employee. He was initially admitted to hospital seriously injured, but was declared "clinically dead" on May 26, 2014. The perpetrator fled on foot. On May 30, 2014, an urgent suspect was arrested in Marseilles , a French man who had joined the jihadists in Syria in 2013 . He was sentenced to life imprisonment in March 2019 .
building
The museum is now located on Rue des Minimes / Miniemenstraat 21 in the upscale Sablon / Zavel district. The current building was built in 1901 by the then German Consul Müser, who opened the New German School in the same place. With the events of the First World War , the school disappeared, so that in the years between the two world wars the Belgian state used the building as a branch of the military tribunal and council of war. In 1940, in the course of the German occupation, the military police finally moved in . During the occupation, students from Brussels, “agitators” and demonstrators, among others, were held in the cellar of the house. After the end of the Second World War , various institutions moved in and out at short intervals, including a department of the National Archives, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and the Museum of Musical Instruments. In 1999 the house was handed over to the Central Council of Jews in Belgium with the purpose of building a Jewish museum on the same site. In 2005 the Jewish Museum of Belgium moved in.
exhibition
Permanent exhibition
The permanent exhibition is located on the first three floors of the front building. The core of this exhibition is the Schoule von Molenbeek , a small synagogue that was founded in 1946 inside an existing apartment building in Molenbeek. In 2003 the Beth Israël School was closed. The modest furniture has since been exhibited in a complete reconstruction of the original room in the museum itself.
Schoule von Molenbeek exterior view
Schoule von Molenbeek interior view
Temporary exhibition
In the rear building there are rooms on three floors for temporary exhibitions relating to Judaism. They usually take turns at intervals of three to four months. One of the most successful exhibitions in recent years, about Magnum photographer Robert Capa , attracted over 20,000 visitors.
collection
In addition to CDs and cassettes, the collection includes around 750 Jewish religious objects, 1,250 art objects, 20,000 photographs and 5,000 posters.
The library comprises a total of around 25,000 works and publications. These mainly include books on Jewish art, artists, history and the genealogy of Judaism as well as a biographical register. There is also a Hebrew and a Yiddish section.
particularities
Since 2002 the museum has benefited from the collaboration with Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste e. V. , under which a German volunteer is doing a traineeship in the museum for a period of twelve months.
literature
- Daniel Dratwa, Philippe Pierret, Zahava Seewald, Bernard Suchecky: Jewish Museum of Belgium, converting a new architectural space . Brussels 2002.
Journal of Art and History of the Jewish Museum
- Philippe Pierret (editor-in-chief): MuséOn 1. Brussels, 2009.
- Philippe Pierret (editor-in-chief): MuséOn 2. Brussels, 2010.
- Philippe Pierret (editor-in-chief): MuséOn 3. Brussels, 2011.
Web links
- Museum website (French, Dutch)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Het Belang van Limburg : Drie doden en één zwaargewonde na schietpartij aan Joods museum from May 24, 2014
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Brussels fatal gun attack at Jewish museum, May 24, 2014
- ↑ Jüdische Allgemeine, May 26, 2014
- ^ Faz.net : Jewish Museum in Brussels. Police start a major manhunt for a suspected assassin. May 28, 2014.
- ^ After the attack on the Jewish Museum. Jihadist confesses gunshots , taz from June 1, 2014
- ↑ annettekrohn.be ( Memento of the original from July 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Shalom Magazine (PDF, 460 kB)
- ↑ Notre boutique ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (French)
Coordinates: 50 ° 50 ′ 26.9 ″ N , 4 ° 21 ′ 12.7 ″ E