Exhibitions Main Page

Virtual exhibitions comprise an array of various digitized visual and audio resources - pictures, photographs, graphics, maps, video clips, musical recordings as well as texts presenting the different subjects included into the general plan of the exhibition.

Made possible by the spread of the Internet, virtual exhibitions have a huge audience located all over the world. Not only do they stay open non-stop throughout the week (24/7), i.e. including hours and days when a “real” exhibition would normally be closed, but also unlike "real" exhibitions, that either dismantle after a few months or need to travel to a new location, virtual exhibitions may be shown for long periods. Visitors are invited to tour our virtual exhibitions from the comfort of their seats while having the option to visit them as many times as they may wish, an extremely rare occurrence with “real” exhibitions, if at all.

Virtual exhibitions serve a wide range of purposes as they could be used for a variety of educational aims as well as for research, recreation, etc. Teachers, students and scholars are invited to make use of our virtual exhibitions as an innovative and fascinating tool for broadening their knowledge of the topic. The mixture of multimedia - music, movies, animation, various effects and/or virtual reality reconstruction in addition to other visual material and texts contribute in offering the visitors a pleasant experience and helping them acquire a better understanding of the exhibition’s subject matter.

Virtual exhibitions are not something new in our museum. Indeed, already back in the early 1990s we recognized the importance of the new electronic media and started producing a series of CD-ROMs and other digital multimedia databases that took full advantage of the new technologies. This could be only a logical continuation of an earlier strategic decision. When Beth Hatefutsoth was inaugurated in 1978, well before the technological revolution reached the world of museums, it pioneered a new direction in the way museums deal with cultural heritage. The results are obvious to any visitor: the Permanent Exhibit of Beth Hatefutsoth hardly boasts any original exhibits nor were the more than 130 temporary exhibitions, that the museum has produced so far, based on authentic artifacts or documents. Instead, during its quarter of a century of activity Beth Hatefutsoth has managed to create vast collections of digitally based objects of which our virtual exhibitions and the website take full advantage.