The New Core Exhibition

The new Core Exhibition of the Museum of the Jewish People takes its visitors on a fascinating journey of discovery and exploration into the unique and ongoing story of the Jewish people. Upon entry, all visitors – Jewish and non-Jewish alike – are prompted to unravel the enigma of the wondrous survival and multifaceted life of the Jewish people.  The exhibition continuously seeks to awaken in each and every visitor a deeply meaningful sense of belonging to, or identification with, this inspiring story.

 


The journey begins with exposure to the very foundations of the Jewish way of life and value system. These are anchored in the unique Jewish cycle of life and in the Jewish calendar, resplendent with meaningful core symbols, yet demonstrating great variety over time and place. Both cycles are inextricably rooted in the public, communal life of the Jews as a people.
Equipped with insights into the core of the Jewish way of life, visitors embark on a journey through time, beginning with the origins of the Jewish people and its formative experiences in the Land of Israel, and continuing with its travails and triumphs of adaptation and creativity in Diaspora communities, and crowning with the dramatic restoration of independent national existence in Israel and the vitality of Jewish life in North America and other Jewish countries concurrently.  Along the way one encounters the forebears of the nation and its biblical prophets, kings and judges. Moreover, the visitor is invited to ponder the dilemmas of integration into the dominant Hellenistic or Roman cultures or separate from it. The one will appreciate the magnificence of the Temple in Jerusalem and the fateful effects of its tragic destruction upon the creative survival of the Jewish people.


From there the major route will continue throughout the millennia of Jewish dispersion, in places such as Egypt, Persia, Babylon, Spain, North Africa and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. One is invited to contemplate the intriguing social, cultural and inter-religious relationships that Jews had with their surroundings, and to appreciate the varieties of tradition developed within Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi communities. The visitor comes to understand the extraordinary benefits of Jewish communal autonomy for Jewish survival and cultural creativity in the circumstances of dispersion.

 


At the great crossroad of Jewish religion, tradition and modernity, visitors stand with the Jews as they confront the new prospect of civic emancipation and enlightenment. They contemplate such alternative options as seeking assimilation, reforming their religious traditions, barricading their religion rigidly against modernity, or striving for national self-determination through Zionism. Meanwhile, the visitor senses the travails and hopes of millions of Jews who migrate to countries of the New World in search of a new life and better prospects, and the experience of Zionist idealists who led the way to Jewish national statehood. At the same time, the exhibition shows the perseverance of anti-Semitic rejection of the Jews, which escalates into the horrifying Holocaust and near total destruction of European Jewry. The Journey will continue to search after a place that will allow safe existence and creativity.
 

 

The next station on the journey exposes visitors to the manifestations of that search. It reveals new genres of Jewish identity and Jewish observance, new political movements, and remarkable religious revivals, all of which find expression both within the State of Israel and in the continued vitality of Jewish communities around the world. At decisive turning points throughout their journey through this amazing saga of the Jewish people, visitors are offered "thinking posts" and areas for group discussion where they may deliberate on the great dilemmas, problems and challenges of the Jewish experience.


As visitors walk along the major route of Jewish existence, two additional parallel routes run alongside them, drawing the attention of the interested visitor. One parallel route focuses on the covenantal faith, values and Jewish identity, all of which contribute to the rich diversity of contemporary modes of Jewish identity and expression. The second parallel route displays the many-faceted expressions of Jewish cultural creativity and symbiosis with world culture throughout Jewish history. The ground-breaking achievements in multifarious fields, contributed to the development of mankind.  

 


This wondrous story has no end as it is consistently continues .The concluding stage of the journey prompts each visitor to reflect very personally on his or her place in relation to the images of a people that appreciates its origins, remembers its past trials and tribulations, is inspired by its traditions, values and achievements, and resolves anew to optimistically grapple with new challenges to its creative and meaningful future.


The exhibition will be designed with new, state-of-the-art museum technology with interactive displays.  


The new core exhibition planning team: Udi Armoni, project director; Dr. Orit Shaham – Gover, chief curator; Daniel Mintz, Elad Melamed, architects and designers; Prof. Gidon Shimoni, chief content advisor.


A steering committee has appointed as the directorate of the new exhibition, chaired by Adv. Israel Maimon. The committee members are members from Beit Hatfutsot board of directors. In addition, the committee includes representatives of major donors to the project, and a representative of the culture authority of the Ministry of Culture and Sport.