MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE

Description

Essentials about the Museum of Jewish Heritage in brief

Anyone interested in Jewish history and culture should visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Opened in 1997, the museum, located on the edge of The Battery on the southwest tip of Manhattan on the Hudson River, is one of New York City’s newer ones. In three exhibition areas, the museum documents Jewish life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the extermination of Jews in the Holocaust, and the rebuilding of Jewish communities after World War II.

The architecture of the Museum of Jewish Heritage

The building’s shape is modeled on a (six-sided) Star of David and is intended to serve as an external reminder of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. The museum’s stated goal is to educate people of all ages and social classes about the broad spectrum of Jewish life before, during and after World War II. The museum contains a theater hall for film screenings, lectures and performances, education rooms, a library, and spaces for temporary exhibitions.

The exhibition areas of the Museum of Jewish Heritage

The museum is divided into three chronologically arranged sections, each housed on its own floor: Jewish Life A Century Ago, The War Against the Jews, and Jewish Renewal. The Jewish Life A Century Ago exhibition area on the first floor depicts the vibrant and varied Jewish life of the late 19th and early 20th centuries through personal artifacts, photographs, and documentary films. This is followed on the second floor by The War Against the Jews, which uses personal objects and testimonies from Jews to tell the story of the Holocaust. The Jewish Renewal area on the second floor highlights the rebuilding of Jewish life and Jewish communities after the Holocaust.

The “Garden of Stones” memorial garden consists of 18 hollowed-out stone blocks. An oak seedling was planted in each of the recesses. The 18 stones stand for “life”, because the Hebrew word for life “chai” corresponds to the gematrical value 18.

In contrast to other Holocaust museums, this museum shows the Holocaust from the (subjective) victim’s point of view. The approximately 800 personal items and 2,000 photographs, which are meant to illustrate the Jewish history of the 20th century, are displayed in the “Scene for Memory and Learning.”

An exhibition features 24 documentary films with interviews from Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation archive, which is designed to convey the memories of Holocaust survivors. Attached to the museum is the JewishGen genealogy database, where anyone can search for ancestors or relatives.