Museum Archives | Page 11 of 12 | World Jewish Travel

Shrine of the Book

The Shrine of the Book is a wing in the Israel Museum near Givat Ram in Jerusalem. It houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in 11 caves in and around the Wadi Qumran in 1947–1956. The shrine was initially intended to be built on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University, adjoining the National Library. An elaborate seven-year plan led to the building’s construction in 1965, funded by the family of David Samuel Gottesman, the Hungarian émigré and philanthropist, who had purchased the scrolls as a gift to the State of Israel.

One of the architects, the pragmatic Armand Phillip Bartos (1910–2005) was evidently chosen based on his being married to Gottesman’s daughter Celeste Ruth Gottesman (who formerly had married Jerome John Altman in 1935 and divorced). For the other appointed architect, the eccentric visionary Frederick John Kiesler (1890–1965) Gottesman had earlier funded a fact-finding project to discover if Kiesler’s “Endless House” could be installed at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The architectural team also included Gezer Heller, who went on to build many important structures in the new State of Israel. He married Alice Hammer, sister of Ibbi Hammer, the woman who became the chief banker of the State of Israel. She was the daughter of the Chief Rabbi of Budapest.Initially, Israeli architects strongly objected to non-Israeli architects’ having been chosen through nepotism and to Kiesler’s having never completed his architectural studies in Vienna and Berlin (though licensed as an architect in New York) and having never built anything. He was primarily an avant-garde stage designer who taught occasionally. Nevertheless, the American-Jewish architects had been chosen by Gottesman as early as 1955.The shrine is built as a white dome, covering a structure placed two-thirds below the ground, that is reflected in a pool of water that surrounds it. Across from the white dome is a black basalt wall. The colors and shapes of the building are based on the imagery of the Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness; the white dome symbolizes the Sons of Light and the black wall symbolizes the Sons of Darkness.As the fragility of the scrolls makes it impossible to display all on a continuous basis, a system of rotation is used. After a scroll has been exhibited for 3–6 months, it is removed from its showcase and placed temporarily in a special storeroom, where it “rests” from exposure.The museum also holds other rare ancient manuscripts and displays The Aleppo Codex. Its dome, due to the unusual architecture, has been used as scenery for several science fiction movies.

Rockefeller Archaeological Museum

The Rockefeller Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum, is currently an archaeological museum located in East Jerusalem. It houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the 1920-1930 Mandate Palestine excavations. The Israel Museum manages The Rockefeller Museum, which houses the head office of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Photo Attribution: Deror Avi, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Bible Lands Museum

The Bible Lands Museum is an archaeological museum in Jerusalem, Israel, that explores people mentioned in the Bible and their cultures. These include but are not limited to ancient Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, Arameans, Hittites, Elamites, Phoenicians, and Persians. The museum aims to put various people covered into a historical context. The museum is located on Museum Row in Givat Ram, between the Israel Museum, The National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel, and the Bloomfield Science Museum.

Qumran National Park

Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel’s Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about 1.5 km from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea and lies near the Israeli settlement and Kibbutz of Kalya.

The Hellenistic period settlement was constructed during the reign of John Hyrcanus (134–104 BCE) or somewhat later, was occupied most of the time until 68 CE and was destroyed by the Romans possibly as late as 73. It is best known as the settlement nearest to the Qumran Caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden, caves in the sheer desert cliffs and beneath, in the marl terrace. The principal excavations at Qumran were conducted by Roland de Vaux in the 1950s, though several later unearthings at the site have since been carried out.

Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority took over the site following the end of the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the West Bank and seized Qumran. Israel has since invested heavily in the area to establish the Qumran caves as a site of “uniquely Israeli Jewish heritage”.

Independence Hall

Independence Hall, originally known as the Dizengoff House, (Hebrew: בית דיזנגוף‎) is best known as the site of the signing of Israel’s Declaration of Independence. It is located on the historic Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv. It has been transformed into a museum and houses exhibits of the signing and exhibits regarding Tel Aviv’s history. From 1932 to 1971, it even contained the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. A Bible Museum, which features archaeological artifacts and Biblically themed artwork, was built amongst the higher levels of the building.

Eretz Israel Museum

The Eretz Israel Museum is a historical and archeological museum in the Ramat Aviv neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Established in 1953, the museum has a large display of archaeological, anthropological, and historical artifacts organized in a series of exhibition pavilions on its grounds. Each pavilion is dedicated to a different subject: glassware, ceramics, coins, copper, and more. The museum also has a planetarium. The “Man and His Work” wing features live demonstrations of ancient methods of weaving, jewelry and pottery making, grain grinding, and bread baking. Tel Qasile, an excavation in which 12 distinct layers of culture have been uncovered, is on the grounds of the museum.

Tenement Museum

At a time when issues surrounding migrants, refugees, and immigration have taken center stage, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is a potent reminder that, as a nation shaped by immigration, our brightest hope for the future lies in the lessons of the past.

Our mission is to foster a society that embraces and values the role of immigration in the evolving American identity through guided tours; curriculum and programs for secondary and post-secondary educators; stories, primary sources and media shared on our website; and interactive online experiences such as Your Story, Our Story, podcasts and more.

Israel Museum

The Israel Museum is the largest cultural institution in the State of Israel and is ranked among the world’s leading art and archaeology museums. Founded in 1965, the Museum houses encyclopedic collections, including works dating from prehistory to the present day, in its Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Jewish Art and Life Wings, and features the most extensive holdings of biblical and Holy Land archaeology in the world. In nearly seventy years, thanks to a legacy of gifts and generous support from its circle of patrons worldwide, the Museum has built a far-ranging collection of nearly 500,000 objects, representing the full scope of world material culture.

In November 2017, Prof. Ido Bruno took up his role as Director of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. To Prof. Bruno’s Welcome Address

In the summer of 2010, the Israel Museum completed the most comprehensive upgrade of its 20-acre campus in its history, featuring new galleries, entrance facilities, and public spaces. The three-year expansion and renewal project was designed to enhance visitor experience of the Museum’s collections, architecture, and surrounding landscape, complementing its original design by Alfred Mansfeld and Dora Gad. Led by James Carpenter Design Associates of New York and Efrat-Kowalsky Architects of Tel Aviv, the project also included the complete renewal and reconfiguration of the Museum’s Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Archaeology Wing, Edmond and Lily Safra Fine Arts Wing, and Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Wing for Jewish Art and Life.

Among the highlights of the Museum’s original campus is the Shrine of the Book, designed by Armand Bartos and Frederick Kiesler, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world, as well as rare early medieval biblical manuscripts. Adjacent to the Shrine is the Model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period, which reconstructs the topography and architectural character of the city as it was prior to its destruction by the Romans in 66 CE, and provides historical context to the Shrine’s presentation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Museum’s celebrated Billy Rose Art Garden, designed for the original campus by Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, is counted among the finest outdoor sculpture settings of the 20th century. An Oriental landscape combined with an ancient Jerusalem hillside, the garden serves as the backdrop for the Israel Museum’s display of the evolution of the modern western sculptural tradition. On view are works by modern masters including Jacques Lipchitz, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, and David Smith, together with more recent site-specific commissions by such artists as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Mark Dion, James Turrell, and Micha Ullman.

The Ruth Youth Wing for Art Education, unique in its size and scope of activities, presents a wide range of programming to more than 100,000 schoolchildren each year, and features exhibition galleries, art studios, classrooms, a library of illustrated children’s books, and a recycling room. Special programs foster intercultural understanding between Arab and Jewish students and reach out to the wide spectrum of Israel’s communities.

In addition to the extensive programming offered on its main campus, the Israel Museum also operates two off-site locations: the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, an architectural gem built in 1938 for the display of archaeology from ancient Israel; and Ticho House, which offers an ongoing program of exhibitions by younger Israeli artists in a historic house and garden setting.

Museum of the Jewish People

The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot, formerly the Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, is located in Tel Aviv, Israel, at the center of the Tel Aviv University campus in Ramat Aviv.

The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot is a global institution that tells the ongoing story of the Jewish people, intended for people of all faiths. Through its educational programming, the institution works to connect Jewish people to their roots and strengthen their personal and collective Jewish identity. The museum presents a pluralistic narrative of Jewish culture, faith, purpose and deed as seen through the lens of Jewish history and current experience today.

The museum launched a large-scale renewal in 2016, adding a new wing with rotating temporary exhibitions, the Alfred H. Moses and Family Synagogue Hall featuring synagogue scale models, and Heroes – Trailblazers of the Jewish People, a children’s interactive exhibition. Museum renovations will culminate with the opening of a new permanent core exhibition in early 2020. It is a center for Jewish discourse, engagement, education and research, encompassing a pluralistic and comprehensive worldview.

Waddesdon – A Rothschild House and Gardens

The impressive French Renaissance-style château of Waddesdon Manor is set in Buckinghamshire, the heart of the English countryside, with sweeping landscapes and manicured gardens. Four Rothschilds have been responsible for the creation, care and development of Waddesdon.

Originally laid out in the 1870s and 1880s for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild to house his collections of decorative arts, Old Master paintings and 18th-century portraits, Waddesdon welcomed the fashionable world to Saturday to Monday house parties. Ferdinand’s social circle spanned royalty, including the Prince of Wales, historians, explorers and writers. Politicians were often guests as well, as he became MP for Aylesbury in 1885 and was a trustee of the British Museum.

Waddesdon’s gardens were created by French landscape designer Elie Lainé and involved levelling the crown of the hill on which the Manor sits. Focal points in the garden include an iconic Victorian-style Parterre – famed for its colourful seasonal bedding, an ornate Rococo-style Aviary – still housing rare birds, Pulham rockwork and 3D bird bedding sculptures that are examples of the Rothschild’s pioneering gardening.

Ferdinand left his estate to his sister Alice (1847-1922), who in turn left Waddesdon to her great-nephew James de Rothschild (1878-1957) of Paris. James married an Englishwoman, Dorothy Pinto, and became a naturalized British citizen.

To secure its future James left Waddesdon to the National Trust in 1957. For nearly 30 years Dorothy oversaw the opening of the house to the public on behalf of the Trust, and at her death in 1988 she left the responsibility for Waddesdon to Jacob, Lord Rothschild (b 1936), a leading figure in the world of art and culture as well as finance.

The Rothschild Foundation now manages Waddesdon on behalf of the National Trust and has continued to add to the collections.

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