Crossroads of Civilizations Museum

The Museum Group (TMG) is a historical center which includes: The Crossroads of Civilization Museum (CCM), Rare Books Manuscripts & Prints Museum, and The Armory Museum. Together, they reflect the best of each civilization that has passed through the region. Its artefacts, reflect the diversity & tolerance of cultures, beliefs & religions; personifying the legacy of Dubai and the UAE as a crossroad of global trade routes and cultural exchange between Europe, Africa and Asia. It weaves together a prolific tale of how the dynamism of Dubai and the UAE is a natural development of the historic interplay of world travelers, traders and Bedouin.

On view at the privately owned Crossroads of Civilisations Museum, the show, organisers say, is the first exhibition centred on the Holocaust to be staged in the Gulf and there is no closing date confirmed, hopefully becoming a permanent exhibition. The exhibition includes historical sections that showcase rare items such as the facsimile of a Mahzor, a Jewish prayer book, from the city of Worms, Germany. Its significance is linked to the spiritual leaders of the Jewish community in Worms, including Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, a medieval French rabbi who helped write comprehensive commentary on the Talmud and the Hebrew Bible. The original prayer book was saved from the Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, a pogrom against Jews, who were executed by Nazi forces in Germany in November 1938.

Another highlight of the exhibition is a tribute to Muslims who helped save Jewish lives during the Holocaust, including stories of Albanian Jews rescued by Albanian Muslims. Another account details the actions of Mohammed Helmy, an Egyptian doctor living in Berlin during the war. He not only provided a safe haven to Jews in a cabin he owned, but he also tended to their medical needs.