Ark, Italy (Venice?) 17th century. Walnut, oak. © Jewish Museum London
The Jewish Museum in London is gearing up for its public opening on March 17 and staff are working behind the scenes to get the ambitious £10 million project finished.
The original museum has tripled in size by expanding into a 19th century piano factory at the rear of the building, allowing the museum to showcase its collections in a state of the art space packed with displays and interactives.
Visitors will enter the Museum through the Welcome Gallery where images of today’s Jewish community flash up on screens reflecting and celebrating the diversity of one of the country’s oldest minority communities.
Reaching the stairs that lead to the further galleries they will pass one of the Museum’s largest pieces – a medieval Mikveh Bath discovered in London in 2001. The Jewish ritual bath, which dates to the mid-thirteenth century offers evidence of the religious and cultural life led by the Jewish community prior to their expulsion from England in 1290. It has been painstakingly pieced back together in the Museum.
Wedding photograph of Mr and Mrs Simmons, 1935 taken by Boris Bennett © Jewish Museum London
On the first floor Judaism: A Living Faith showcases the Museum's collection of rare and beautiful pieces of Judaica which includes a spectacular ark (above) that has just been taken out of storage and reassembled for display.
This gallery also explores the differing attitudes and worshipping practices within Judaism with the aid of some novel interactives, which include an Ask the Rabbi device and a hands on interactive called Design Your own Synagogue.
Moving up another level to History: A British Story and a walk down a recreation of an East End street offers the chance to learn about life in the Jewish community in the early 20th century.
Visitors will be treated to the sites and sounds of this thriving urban community. They will even be able to get their hands on the surprisingly heavy tools used in a Jewish tailor's shop and smell the chicken soup in a kitchen (you can taste the real thing in the museum’s new Kosher café).
Meier Tzelniker (as Shylock) on stage at Adler Hall, appearing in the New Yiddish Theatre Company's 1946 production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. With Abish Meisels in the prompt box. (Meisels was David Schneider's grandfather).Credit: Jewish Museum London.
History a British story also celebrates some of the individual members of East London’s Jewish community including wedding photographer Boris Bennett who would often take 30 bridal portraits every Sunday with couples queuing on the stairs of his studio. Thousands of Jewish wedding couples were snapped this way in nearly the exact same pose. Visitors can pose in front on an art deco recreation of his familiar studio to make their own wedding snap.
This section of the Museum also celebrates the Yiddish Theatre and there is a selection of costumes for those who fancy dressing up and joining in with Yiddish Theatre karaoke.
Things take a rather more sober turn in the final Holocaust Gallery, which uses the story of Leon Greenman OBE, a London born Auschwitz survivor who lost his wife and young son in the holocaust.
The moving artefacts, which include articles of his clothing, a piece of barbed wire and a toothbrush and packet of cigarettes given to him by a liberating American, have been donated by Greenman.
Poster for the Yiddish comedy Shver Tzu Zein A Yid (Hard To Be a Jew) by Sholem Aleichem, performed by the Grand Palais Company at the Grand Palais Theatre, Commercial Road, London, starring Anna Tzelnicker. © Jewish Museum London
Director Rickie Burman hopes the Museum’s emphasis on personal stories and narratives like this will mean it will appeal to a wide audience.
“We are trying to establish a world-class museum and landmark attraction that appeals to everyone, whatever their background or faith," she says.
“We want to make the Museum a welcoming place which reflects and celebrates the diversity of the Jewish Community and shows the community as part of a wider story of British History."
Burman belives there is a "lack of knowledge and understanding" about Jewish life history and culture.
“We hope that in a wider sense we can increase that knowledge and understanding and build interfaith connections as the individual stories bring out a commonality of experience.”
The Jewish Museum will open to the public on March 17 – for more information go to the Jewish Museum website.
