Jewish Museum
A Jewish museum documents the history and culture of Judaism from a museum perspective.
history
18th century
According to the latest research, the “Jewish Cabinet” of the Saxon Elector and Polish King Augustus the Strong can be considered the first Jewish museum . It was set up in the hall of the Wallpavillon in the Dresden Zwinger around 1730. For a hundred years it was one of the most popular sights in Dresden with its central showpiece, a 3.45 by 3.45 meter wooden model of the Jerusalem Temple. In addition to the temple model, the exhibits include a lifelike wax figure of a rabbi, Torah scrolls and numerous religious ceremonial objects.
The Russian officer Fedor Glinka noted in 1813: "If one day a storm of the most adverse coincidences were to exterminate this whole people, one could find all their customs and laws here". When Arthur Schopenhauer visited Dresden with his parents at the beginning of September 1800, he wrote in his diary: “In the meantime we went to the Zwinger this afternoon: a beautiful orangery surrounded by beautiful buildings in which all kinds of rarities can be seen, some of which we looked at. In the first building there are lots of things related to the Jewish religion. A temple of Solomon made of wood, perfectly imitated a. measured. There are also many Jewish books, very beautifully written in Hebrew letters on parchment, etc. rolled up, also many instruments for marriage, circumcision, divorce of a married couple, etc. other Jewish ceremonies. "
The model of the Temple of Salomonis was acquired for Dresden in 1732 and presented from spring 1733 as a supplement and highlight to the Jewish cult objects exhibited since around 1730.
The Dresden “Juden-Cabinet” with a temple model, an entire replica synagogue, the rabbi figure and the ceremonial objects was closed in 1830. The temple model was acquired by the Jewish merchant Samuel Erb, who sold it in 1846 for 43 thalers to the Kreuzkirche, which a few decades later gave it to the Saxon Antiquities Association, which in turn sold it to the Hamburg Antiquities Association in 1910 for 2,270 marks.
In the Dresden collections there are still some forgotten fragments and thematically related artifacts: a wooden figure of a high priest or a copy of an Esther scroll from the Jewish cabinet. Furthermore, an illuminated Torah scroll.
19th century
A presentation of sacred objects, for example for display purposes, was originally regarded as profanation by Judaism, sacred writings that had become unusable were not destroyed, but rather hidden in a geniza or buried in the cemetery .
In the 19th century in Europe there was a general shift in the meaning of religious objects from ritual to art. In the course of Jewish emancipation and secularization , Jewish communities began to present their profane “antiquities” in museums or smaller exhibitions. French Jews took part in the Paris World's Fair in 1878 with exhibits of Jewish culture and religion , British Jews in 1886 in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition .
The Society for the Collection and Conservation of Art and Historical Monuments of Judaism was founded in Vienna in 1895 to design independent museums , whereupon the Vienna Jewish Museum, the world's first modern Jewish museum (with around 400 objects), was opened. This was followed by the founding of numerous Jewish museums, mostly under the leadership of Jewish communities. From then on, Judaica also found its way into the collections of local history , art and folklore museums .
20th century
In the November pogroms of 1938, many synagogues and Jewish museums were devastated or robbed. Objects from the Vienna Jewish Museum were brought to the Natural History Museum in 1939 and used there for an anti-Semitic exhibition. The Jewish Museum in Prague , founded in 1906, was functionalized by the SS after its closure in 1943 with stolen Jewish inventory from Bohemia and Moravia into the "Central Jewish Museum of the SS". Completely renovated by the state after the Second World War, it is now one of the most visited museums in the city. The same applies to the Jewish Museum in Budapest (Magyar Zsidó Múzeum). The Jewish Museum Berlin is a museum founded on January 24, 1933 a few days before the seizure of power by the National Socialists back and is currently the largest Jewish museum in Europe.
In many cities with a Jewish tradition, Jewish museums have established themselves worldwide, not without criticism from the Jewish side. Criticism was voiced by Orthodox Jews , who complain about the illegitimate profanation of Jewish ceremonial implements, on the other hand, by assimilated Jews , who fear renewed exclusion, stereotyping or reduction of Jewish cultural history to religious content in the selection and presentation of the exhibits .
Since 1988, the Association of European Jewish Museums ( AEJM ) has been an umbrella organization to which the majority of Jewish museums in Europe belong. The president since 2017 is Emile Schrijver , director of the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam. Since 2004 the organization Jewish Heritage Europe has existed , which is dedicated to the exchange between Jewish museums and other institutions of Jewish cultural heritage.
The Holocaust museums are of particular importance as memorial sites .
literature
- Jens Hoppe: Jewish history and culture in museums. On the non-Jewish museology of the Jewish in Germany. Waxmann, Münster / Munich [among others] 2002, ISBN 978-3-8309-1178-4 .
- Otto Lohr, Bernhard Purin (ed.): Jüdisches Kulturgut. recognize - preserve - convey. (= State Office for Non-State Museums in Bavaria (ed.): MuseumsBausteine, Volume 18). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin / Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3422074354 .
Web links
- Jewish museums . In: Alemannia Judaica
- Bernhard Purin : Jewish antiquities. From ritual object to museum exhibit (PDF; 128 kB) .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Website ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2014 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. (English)
- ↑ Website (English)
- ^ Sally Berkovic: Jewish Museums: Are They Good for the Jews? Published April 5, 2013. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
- ^ Homepage of the organization
- ^ Jewish Heritage Europe: WHAT IS “JEWISH HERITAGE EUROPE”? ( Memento of the original from January 28, 2015 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. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
