Museum Archives | Page 3 of 12 | World Jewish Travel

Sarajevo Haggadah at The National Museum of the Republic

The Sarajevo Haggadah is an illuminated manuscript that contains the illustrated traditional text of the Passover Haggadah which accompanies the Passover Seder. It is one of the oldest Sephardic Haggadahs in the world, originating in Barcelona around 1350. The Haggadah is owned by the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. Its monetary value is undetermined, but a museum in Spain required that it be insured for $7 million before it could be transported to an exhibition there in 1992.

The Sarajevo Haggadah is handwritten on bleached calfskin and illuminated in copper and gold. It opens with 34 pages of illustrations of key scenes in the Bible from creation through the death of Moses. Its pages are stained with wine, evidence that it was used at many Passover Seders. The Sarajevo Haggadah was submitted by Bosnia and Herzegovina for inclusion in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register and was included in 2017.

Image attribution:
Kleinjp, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons;
Smooth_O, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Jewish Museum of Sarajevo

The Museum of the Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovina is part of the City Museum of Sarajevo, telling the story of the 400-year history of the Jewish people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s situated in the oldest synagogue in Bosnia and Herzegovina, known as the Sephardim Il kal vjezu (the old temple) which was build in 1581. The rustic architecture of this old synagogue is admired by many locals and tourists who visit the museum!

The museum was opened 1966, on the 400th year anniversary of the Jewish arrival to Sarajevo. The museum’s main exhibition is located on the ground floor of the museum and is spread over two galleries which contain photographs, documents, paintings, maps, and other cultural and ritual objects.

Pilsen Great Synagogue

The Pilsen Great Synagogue

The Pilsen Great Synagogue, built in 1893, sits in Pilsen, where a Jewish presence has existed since the 14th century. The structure was build in a Moorish-Romanesque style and is the third largest synagogue in Europe.

Not long after its construction, the Czech Republish Jewish community was nearly destroyed by the Nazis and the Great Synagogue of Pilsen was used as a storage unit for property cleared out Jewish homes.

On April 10, 2022, the synagogue re-opened. The reopening consisted of a procession a Torah scroll to the inside ark, words from the Culture Minister and heads of the local, Jewish community, a concert inspired by Jewish prayer, and an opening of a permanent exhibition.

A bit over an hour drive from Prague, the Pilsen Great Synagogue is a great place to learn about Jewish heritage in the Czech Republic.

Kedainiai Synagogue Complex

Kėdainiai has a synagogue complex that consists of two synagogues: The Great Synagogue and the New Synagogue. The Great Synagogue was built in 1784, replacing a wooden synagogue that burned down during the fire. In the first half of the 19th century, the Jewish community continued to grow, and the need to build additional prayer houses arose. The New Synagogue was built in 1837. On its facade, you can see some features of historicist architecture. Before one hundred years, this place looked different as it was an epicenter of the Jewish community. The New Synagogue housed a custody place. Also, in front of the synagogue, a butcher’s house stood, which was connected to the synagogue by an arc. Since 2002 the building of the New Synagogue is used as a multicultural center, where people have an opportunity to get acquainted with the history of the Jewish community and attend various cultural events. While The Great Synagogue, during the Soviet times, experienced serious reconstructions, and the interior of the synagogue was redesigned. Now the synagogue houses an art school.

Okashi Art Museum

Adjacent to the Knights’ Halls in Old Akko, an ancient building with cruciform domes dating back to the Ottoman period houses a museum featuring rotating exhibitions of Israeli art alongside a permanent exhibit of the works of late artist, Avshalom Okashi (1916-1980). Okashi was undoubtedly one of Israel’s most salient artists and he left an indelible mark on Israeli art. He spent most of his life in Akko, where he set up his painting workshop (which became the Okashi Museum posthumously) in order to pass on his artistic heritage to future generations. Okashi taught art in most of Akko’s schools. He also taught at the University of Haifa’s Art Department during its initial years. The subjects of his early works are rooted in nature and in the human and spiritual reality of Israel and they are drawn from the biblical texts he grew up on in his grandfather’s home.

Avshalom Okashi was one of the lynchpins of the New Horizons movement, a group of artists that formed in Israel after the War of Independence and he presented his work in all of the group’s exhibitions. His works are exhibited in the section dedicated to the museum’s permanent exhibition in his name, which was established in his memory in Old Akko. Moreover, there are rotating exhibitions in the other section of the museum also featuring contemporary Israeli art. There have been several exhibitions of leading Israeli artists over the years, e.g.: Yigal Ozeri, Ofer Lalouche, Yechiel Shemi, Menashe Kadishman, Shmulik Katz, Tali Amitai-Tabib, Azriel Kaufman, Nahum Gutman and many more illustrious artists. The museum maintains an ongoing dialogue with artists pursuing Okashi’s path and with his pupils and exhibits their works at every possible opportunity.

Treasures in the Walls Ethnographic Museum

The Treasures in the Walls Museum is an ethnographic museum located in Acre, Israel. The museum is dedicated to show the craftsmanship of the city of Acre.

The building was built by the Ottoman ruler of Jazzar Pasha, after Napoleon tried to conquer the city in 1779. The building was originally called Burj Al-Commander and was used as a military base for the Ottoman Empire. One of the reasons why the museum was established to conserve the collections Dan Hortman and Michael Lurie. The design of the presentation of the museum’s exhibits was designed by Michal Mizrahi.

The museum has exhibits on life in Galilee dating back to the 19th and 20th centuries. The museum contains artifacts such as local craftsmanship, clocks, vessels, furniture, works of art and books for children. During Hanukkah, the museum displays a collection of menorahs dating back to the 1930s. In 2015, the museum exhibited 40 Haggadot from the Mordechai collection. Some of the museum’s books were collected by artist Mickey Einhorn-Nelkenbaum, as well as children’s books from the Luria collection. The museum contains exhibits of objects such as handicrafts that were found in houses in Acre and Galilee from different communities in Israel.

Prado Museum

The Museo del Prado opened to the public on 19 November 1819 as a Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture. In 2019, we celebrated our Bicentenary, a commemoration that will reveal the path covered since 1819 until today. On this special occasion, we wanted to reflect on the future and the forthcoming challenges for this and the other great Museums of ancient painting: the need to attract social groups that traditionally are not attracted by the collections, to encourage gender and minority research studies or the challenges caused by overcrowding. Furthermore, for the following years the finalization of the Prado Campus is expected, adding the last building, the Hall of Realms, the old Buen Retiro Palace, an incorporation that will imply a rethinking of the current display of the collections. The activity plan for the bicentenary reinforces the usual programme of the Museo del Prado, insisting on the above mentioned aspects.

The building that today houses the Museo Nacional del Prado was designed by architect Juan de Villanueva in 1785. It was constructed to house the Natural History Cabinet, by orders of King Charles III. However, the building’s final purpose – as the new Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures – was the decision of the monarch’s grandson, King Ferdinand VII, encouraged by his wife Queen Maria Isabel de Braganza.The Royal Museum, soon quickly renamed the National Museum of Paintings and Sculptures and subsequently the Museo Nacional del Prado, opened to the public for the first time in November 1819.

For centuries, artists have drawn on Biblical themes and stories to depict their religious devotion, several of which depict Jewish life, and Judaism in general. The Prado Museum is full of artwork depicting Jewish life and Spain’s Sephardic past. One such masterpiece is the Las Meninas which shows the truth behind Diego Velazquez’s purported Jewish heritage.

Jewish Museum Vienna

The Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna is a place of encounter and understanding. It enables insights into Judaism, its holidays and customs, but also into youth culture. At its two locations, the Jewish Museum Vienna presents a unique overview of the history and the present-day life of Viennese Jews. We are looking forward to your visit! The Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna is a place of encounter, interaction and understanding, which seeks to raise awareness of Jewish history, religion, and culture.

The first Jewish museum in the world was founded in Vienna in 1895, sponsored by a group of Viennese Jewish citizens. The collection focused on the culture and history of the Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, particularly Vienna and Galicia. In the interwar years Zionist objects were added, reflecting the new political discussion at that time.

The museum was closed by the Nazis in 1938 directly after the Anschluss. In the last year of its existence the inventory listed 6,474 objects. In 1939 the museum collection was transferred to the Museum of Ethnology and other institutions in Vienna. The Anthropology Department of the Natural History Museum in Vienna used some of the items for its anti-Semitic propaganda exhibition “The physical and psychological appearance of the Jews”.

Most of the objects were returned to the IKG Vienna in the early 1950s, although some were not restituted until the 1990s. Over half of the objects have disappeared; it is practically impossible to discover whether they were stolen or deliberately destroyed. Objects once listed in the Jewish Museum collection turn up occasionally on the art and antiques market. The surviving objects – on permanent loan from the IKG to the present-day Jewish Museum Vienna – form a unique component of the current collection.

Jewish Ceremonial Hall

The Jewish Ceremonial Hall (Obřadní síň in Czech) can be found in the Josefov or Jewish Quarter of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. It was built in 1911-12 under the direction of architect J. Gerstl for the Jewish Burial Society (Hevra Kadisha) and is in the neo-Romanesque style. Originally used as a ceremonial hall and mortuary it now forms part of The Jewish Museum of Prague holding exhibitions relating to Jewish history.

The ticket you get from the museum covers a guided visit of the Ceremonial Hall, Old Jewish Cemetery, The Old-New Synagogue, the Pinkas Synagogue, the Klausen Synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue and Meisel Synagogue.

Image Attribution: Official Tourism Website of Prague

Memorial de la Shoah

Mémorial de la Shoah is the Holocaust museum in Paris, France. The memorial is in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, in the Marais district, which had a large Jewish population at the beginning of World War II. The memorial was opened, by President Jacques Chirac, on 27 January 2005. This day was chosen to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp. The memorial underwent a major renovation in 2005, creating exhibition spaces, a multimedia center, and a reading room.

Wall of Names
Several walls that make a passageway to the building list the names of the approximately 76,000 French Jews who were deported and murdered by the Nazis. They are listed alphabetically by year of deportation.

The Crypt
The crypt predates the Mémorial de la Shoah; in 1957, the ashes of victims from the different death camps and the Warsaw Ghetto were buried in dirt from Israel. A door from the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp in France faces the tomb.

The “Jewish Files”
The Jewish files are located in a small room near the crypt. They were created by the Vichy government to identify Jewish citizens, and were later used by the Nazis to locate Jews for deportation.

Exhibit Rooms
The memorial’s permanent exhibit documents the history of French Jews during the Holocaust. The materials on exhibit include photographs, text, and video and audio recordings.

The memorial also includes an auditorium, bookstore, multimedia learning center, documentation center, and the Room of Names (research room).

The Wall of the Righteous
Since 1963, the Museum Memorial of Yad Vashem (Jerusalem) has awarded the title “Righteous Among the Nations” to non-Jewish people who helped save Jews during the war. As of 2014, this wall lists 3,300 people, either French or acting in France, who have been awarded this title. The wall runs alongside of the memorial.

Image attribution:
BrnGrby, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

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