This article is funded by the European Studies Undergraduate Paper Prize, awarded by the Council for European Studies.
For tourists and natives, Jews and non-Jews alike, Jewish museums are often a popular spot in Eastern Europe today. The fact that Jewish museums are popular is a paradox in the very place where most European Jews were murdered. Following the Holocaust, many people never thought any sense of Jewish life or Jewish history would return to the grounds of Europe, let alone that Europe would become host to Jewish institutions, which are common and widespread. In the twenty-first century, almost every East European capital has its own Jewish museum, preserving and remembering Jewish history in each country in a different way, but all through the institutionalization of memory. Some memorialize the experience of Jews in the Holocaust, some memorialize the Jewish experience during Communism, but all relate the story of Jewish life in that country prior to tragedy, and many following. What distinguishes Eastern European Jewish museums from other Jewish museums around the world? What is so attractive about these memories, which draw crowds to the Jewish museums? In a continent where the number of Jews remaining is quite small, Jewish sites and indications of the vibrant communities that once lived there have a large and active presence. Who is the intended audience of these sites and why is there Jewish tourism in Eastern Europe today? Is the presence for the locals, the Jews who still remain in Eastern Europe? Or, is it for the non-Jewish locals, serving as a way for them to connect to a part of the lost history of their countries? Or, is Jewish tourism simply for the tourists, the foreigners who come from out of town wanting to learn about their ancestors?
“Jewish museums have become a staple of Jewish culture internationally in the post- World War II era, quickly evolving from an adventitious presence in Jewish public life to one of its most prominent fixtures.”[1] The establishment of so many new Jewish museums in Europe has developed a change in the function of Jewish museums; they are now “becoming a forum as much as a treasure box,” allowing for dialogue rather than just a place to preserve items.[2] The new Jewish museums in Europe provide opportunity for activity and a call to return to the museums again and again, instead of existing as places visitors walk into and look at only once. Twenty-first century Jewish museums in Eastern Europe matter because they educate other communities and allow them to reflect on their own experiences, they reopen a story which is untold outside of Europe, they explore the ways in which Jewish history is integral to European history, and they raise awareness of Jewish religion and Yiddish culture. Although representation varies based on location, Jewish museums in Eastern Europe exemplify Yiddish culture through items on display in exhibits and held in collections, using more visuals than text, and specifically, through newspapers and Yiddish theatre.
Jewish exhibitions first emerged as a post emancipation concept, founded in Western Europe in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Prior to World War II, Jewish museums and exhibitions of any sort were limited; however, in 1945 the Jewish museums presence expanded in the West. Communism, which restricted free speech and freedom of information, prevented the existence of Jewish museums in Eastern Europe, until the fall of Communism in 1989 when gradually Jewish museums moved eastward.[3]As the emancipation and post emancipation culture came to Eastern Europe, Jewish museums began to have special significance for Eastern European Jewish culture. Museums were a way to express their Jewish heritage to mainstream society, integrating Jewish culture with the culture of a local nation or a nation’s history. Jewish museums during this time period were also a way of showing that Jews didn’t have to be afraid of exposing their religious and cultural traditions to the public.[4] At the start of Jewish exhibitions, Judaica exhibits and Jewish art exhibits developed simultaneously. These first Jewish museums hosted temporary exhibits and permanent collections, unique objects with histories of their own, but not put on public display in a permanent exhibition.
At the time when Jewish museums first became widespread, they were created with a growing interest among society in the cultivation of national consciousness, and the demonstration of local achievements in the arts, sciences and industry. There was a “dramatic European impulse during the second half of the nineteenth century to preserve and develop historic consciousness through museums and to exhibit objects of artistic, industrial, and mechanical nature at expansive international exhibitions.”[5] Local patriotism was growing and as a result there was an expansion in the field of Jewish folklore and ethnography. Furthermore, then as in today, Jewish museums were created as a vehicle of education.[6]
Yet, in addition to serving as a way to educate a Jewish population, Jewish museums also “serve[d] as a public meeting ground for Jews and gentiles alike in the spirit of culture and in appreciation of Jewish culture.”[7] The concept of non-Jews taking as much of an interest in Jewish museums as Jews, can be seen as far back as 1886, not in Eastern Europe, but with the conception of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition in London, England. As the exhibition opened to the public, The Jewish Chronicle reported that “there was a goodly number of Gentile celebrities who showed their friendliness to all that interests Jews by their sympathetic presence.”[8] The exhibition served as that vehicle of education, but for the Gentile crowd, eliminating “something of the mystery” which was supposed to surround everything Jewish.[9] The exhibition was described as “Anglo-Jewish, and national”, a partnership where “England has to be proud of her treatment of Jews and Jews have to be grateful to a great country.”[10] Much like the questions Jewish museums raise amongst European Jews in the twenty-first century, the emergence of this exhibit and Judaism into mainstream society had Jews thinking about the way they appeared to English society.
Yet, the importance of the non-Jewish contribution to Jewish museums in Europe, is not unique to London in 1886. In many Eastern European countries today, the majority of visitors to Jewish museums are not Jewish. Not only do non-Jews visit these museums but they have opportunities to engage with the content through programs for non-Jewish school children. “Jewish museums, especially those in multi-cultural Europe, have an important socio-political role to play—to what extent can other communities learn to reflect on their own experiences of immigration, acculturation and assimilation from the Jewish experience.”[11] However, these vast opportunities for non-Jews are not to be mistaken for a replacement of the Jewish interests in a Jewish museum—Jewish museums that are involved with the local Jewish community in Eastern Europe have the chance to build identities and nurture community engagement and Jewish education as inspiration for new and creative expressions of Jewish life.[12]
Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Chief Curator of the main exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in Warsaw, Poland, argues that understanding what constitutes a Jewish museum is important for understanding why Jewish museums are necessary in the twenty-first century. In her keynote address at the 2011 Association of European Jewish Museums conference, Kirshenblatt-Gimblett explained that there is a difference between a Jewish museum and a place that is very friendly towards Jewish visitors, by having such mechanisms as a kosher restaurant, mezuzot on doorways, or being closed on Saturday’s for the Jewish day of rest, Shabbat. While Jewish museums in Eastern Europe appropriately fit the name of Jewish museum, in Europe, the Jewish museums are more than just Jewish museums: they celebrate the histories of local communities, not exclusively the Jews.[13]
She continued by saying that Jewish museums in countries other than Europe, such as the Jewish museums in the United States, often only portray European Jewish history in terms of the Holocaust. Instead of displaying all of European Jewish history—history from before, during and after the Holocaust—Jewish museums outside of the place where the Holocaust happened turn their backs on post-war and frequently pre-war Europe, only showing one side of the coin, one part of history, the tragic side. These museums outside of Europe forget the paradox, forget the fact that although few in number, there are still Jews and Jewish heritage sites in Europe, in the place that tried to end them. “European Jewish museums are an attempt to recover stories of success that have been overshadowed by the failure of the Holocaust,” Kirshenblatt-Gimblett said. “The uplifting side of Jewish contributions to real civilization are equally important and that positions Europe in a very particular way—and in a way I would like to see international Jewish museums present.”[14] For many Jewish museums outside of Europe, the Jewish story is over with the Holocaust and European Jewish history is a closed story. Yet, there is more to European Jewish history than only the Holocaust. From an international perspective, Jewish museums in Europe, and specifically in Eastern Europe, are needed today in order to reopen the story which is an untold and unknown story outside of Europe. Jewish museums around the world remember those Jews who died by remembering how they died, but the defining feature of European Jewish museums is to honor those who died by remembering how they lived.
For instance, the POLIN Museum was built on the rubble of the Warsaw ghetto, and faces the Warsaw ghetto monument. Yet, although the museum sits in relation to the Holocaust, it has a certain independence from it and fights against the overwhelming belief that everything about Europe led inevitably to the Holocaust. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett said that “it was not inevitable in Poland or anywhere, to have the previous 1,000 years completely defined by the Holocaust.”[15] Even in places like the United States, there are Jewish museums using historic buildings that sit on a place where there aren’t any Jews anymore, and this goes to show, how non-Jews are finding themselves everywhere in the story. Poland was the center of the Holocaust and the material traces are everywhere, they “have become the be all and end all of how the world sees Poland whenever you mention the word Jew, that is all they see, the Holocaust, death camps, Polish Antisemitism,” Kirshenblatt-Gimblett said.[16] What people don’t see, and what a European Jewish museum such as POLIN attempts to display, is that Poland was once one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe. Poland was one of the most diverse and tolerant countries in early modern Europe, a “place where a Jewish minority was able to create a distinctive civilization while being part of the larger society.”[17]
Yet, the fact that such a museum displays what a place once was makes the reason for Jewish museums questionable. It is a distinguishing character of Jewish museums that did not just begin solely after the Holocaust, but rather, was present at the very start of Jewish museums. “In other museums, collections of artifacts were often associated with a culture’s thriving continuity; the objects were there to testify to that culture’s power and range. By contrast, a Jewish religious object put on exhibit was no longer playing its vital role in synagogue or home; taken out of its context and function, it had been turned into a relic.”[18] This phenomenon of Jewish museums representing items of the past is a trend that many see continued into today: “a museum of Jewish religious artifacts is partly a Jewish morgue, less a tribute to Judaism’s continuity than a memorial to a world of belief left behind—in some cases, forcibly so.”[19]
With the creation of the POLIN Museum, further resistance came from American Jews who were skeptical about why the museum was built in Poland. For Kirshenblatt-Gimblett the answer was obvious, “it was built in Poland because this is where the story happened.”[20]Many American Jews insisted that there are no Jews in Poland and therefore the museum telling the Polish-Jewish story should have been built in America or Israel. POLIN strives to take what many consider a closed story and open it, and this is illustrated specifically through the last gallery in the POLIN main exhibit, the Post War Years gallery, which takes Polish Jewish history all the way up to the present day and reaches to the future. There are all kinds of developments in Poland that are challenging and enriching for Jews around the world to see. “The number of Jews in Poland today is small, but there is an enormous Jewish presence in Polish consciousness,” Kirshenblatt-Gimblett said. “This museum offers something extremely important that Holocaust museums don’t and that is a constructive model of engagement. Holocaust museums are all about the bad news, but the so-called Jewish museums have an opportunity to address many difficult issues drawing on many years, the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it.”[21]
What makes a museum “Jewish” is not as easy as just saying thematically “it’s about Jews.” If one looks at a museum from a relational standpoint the question is to whom does this story matter and why? If not for the story that POLIN tells about the 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland, the world would always know more about how Jews died than how Jews lived and how they continue to live on a small scale in Poland today. To create a relational history it is not a history of how Jews and Poland influenced each other, not a history of somebody else, but rather, a common history, Jews are an integral part of Polish history and Polish history is incomplete without a history of Polish Jews.[22] POLIN and other Jewish museums in Eastern Europe, are agents of that type of history and a celebration of it.
While there is not a way to prove if the fascination with central, well-funded Jewish museums and the high attendance at these museums will affect other types of Jewish sites throughout Europe, these museums are raising awareness about Jewish religion and culture— which leads to a greater interest and acceptance about other places. “But will presenting a replica of the Gwozdziec synagogue ceiling in Warsaw encourage visitors to seek out actual former synagogues such as Lancut and Zamosc, too? Only time will tell – but the chance is there to be seized.”[23]
When it comes to Jewish museums specifically in Eastern Europe, there is a whole chapter of Jewish life in Ashkenazic society (Jews from Eastern Europe) that these museums must find a way to represent: Yiddish culture. Historians must ask themselves what is Yiddish culture? Each Jewish museum in Eastern Europe has to decide on the definition of Yiddish culture and then figure out a way to embody that definition in an exhibit. Further, why is Yiddish culture even significant? What makes a culture that stems from a language different than the culture that may come from other languages or minority groups? The culture of Jews in Eastern Europe was once distinguishable from other cultures not only for its language, but for the events and traditions that formed around it and connected Jews from different parts of Eastern Europe together as Jews.
Carmen Iovitu, Director of the Romanian Jewish History Museum, defines Yiddish culture as “all that concerns the language, the cultural product (literature, music, theater) and the family life (education/religion, motherhood, kitchen, traditions).” She said that Yiddish culture has to be displayed in the Romanian Jewish History Museum because Yiddish was quite strong in Romania. “We cannot leave the Yiddish culture aside, and we won’t, even more we have to bring it back because it has been forgotten for so many years,” Iovitu said.[24] The museum shows that Jews have been in Romania since the second century and are still living in Romania today.
Since the heroes of Jewish culture were so important to Romanian culture, there is a partnership between the two cultures in Romania. Yiddish, which comes from the second half of the nineteenth century and lasted until the Holocaust, is a shorter history, but with a lot of presence in Romania today. “This is the strange thing, you have a gap for some tens of years but we are still doing it [Yiddish],” Iovitu said. “People who don’t understand a thing they come and clap and then dance together with us, or even cry while watching a Yiddish theatre play.”[25]
In Bucharest, Romania, Yiddish theatre is crucial to representing Yiddish culture in the Romanian Jewish History Museum. Founded in 1978 by the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in Romania, today, the Romanian Jewish History Museum shares premises with a Yiddish theatre.[26] Once, Yiddish plays put on stage in Bucharest were treated as a taboo subject by the Chief Rabbi, and the fact that these plays now coexist within the walls of the history museum raises questions and provides evidence that Bucharest, and the Bucharest Jewish community, is doing new things. The first exhibition at the Romanian Jewish History Museum focused on Jewish history in Romania through cultural personalities such as poets, artists, scientists, professors and mathematicians. Yiddish had very little presence in the exhibit until after 1989, when Bucharest experienced the free world and the exhibition changed. With the inclusion of a Jewish/Yiddish theatre into the museum, suddenly there was Yiddish culture.[27] Through the Jewish State Theatre, and Klezmer music, the Yiddish language is promoted. Over the years Yiddish culture has been welcomed more and more both into the museum and the Bucharest community.
Most recently, the Romanian Jewish History Museum took part in a victory alongside a representative of Parliament in Romania, and the Jewish Theatre, which proposed a National Day of Yiddish Culture, Language, and Theatre. Beginning on May 30, 2018 will be the date of the annual celebration, the birthday of a well-known Yiddish poet Itzhak Manger. The Romanian Jewish History Museum staff, which consists of five people who work at the museum and three to four collaborators, will be present at this celebration and will show much more of Yiddish culture in the museum during this time: more Yiddish literature, poetry and newspapers. The museum maintains over 50 years’ worth of Yiddish newspapers which were active in Moldova and Bucharest.[28]
Many non-Jews in Romania are attracted to Yiddish culture, without even realizing that it is Yiddish culture; they enjoy Klezmer music simply because it resembles folklore. The rhythm and strength of Klezmer music reminds them of what they know from Romanian folklore. Yet, when they learn it is Yiddish culture they are interested in, they don’t know or understand the difference between Hebrew and Yiddish. The Romanian Jewish History Museum, with the opening of a new exhibit, will help visitors to understand the difference between these two languages. Their goal with the new exhibit is to change the manner of exhibiting—they want to inform, but through more visuals and less documents. For instance, the museum possesses two photos of a couple from the mid-nineteenth century. The photos show a man who writes the Torah scrolls (a Sofer), and a lady who is literate and can read the Torah to ladies who don’t know how to read. On the back of these photos, written in both Yiddish and Romanian, is the explanation of who the couple is, and it speaks about a family who was very well engaged into the small society around them.[29]
In other Eastern European Jewish museums Yiddish culture is displayed in different ways than at the Jewish museum in Romania. In Latvia during the years 1918-1941, 85 percent of Latvian Jews were Yiddish speaking Jews.[30] Yet, although this fact is mentioned in the audio guide of the Jews in Latvia Museum in Riga, Latvia, it is not really dwelled on in the actual display. In the Jews in Latvia Museum, today, there are fewer artifacts on display that represent Yiddish culture then there was the amount of Yiddish culture that was present in Latvia. The Jews in Latvia Museum showcases the history of Latvian Jews from the sixteenth century until 1945. In the permanent exhibit in the Jews in Latvia Museum, one section makes many references to Yiddish culture but has no actual text on panels in Yiddish, so as to make the information readable for visitors. The Jews in Latvia Museum is however, one of the few Jewish museums in Eastern Europe with leaflets available in Yiddish.[31] While the Jews in Latvia Museum is in possession of many cultural Yiddish objects, most of these objects such as Yiddish newspapers, schoolbooks, diaries, letterheads of organizations, diplomas and graduation certificates are stored in their collections rather than on exhibition in the museum. Yet, the collections are not closed off to visitors, those who make an appointment can still see these objects firsthand.
The section of the Jews in Latvia Museum related to Yiddish culture emphasizes the flourishing Yiddish culture in the 1920’s and 1930’s, specifically, the Yiddish press and Yiddish literature which was quite popular. Additionally, the exhibit highlights the unique conflict between Hebraists and Yiddishists. In this time period the Latvian government, the Latvia Ministry of Education, provided state-supported Yiddish schools and separate state-supported Hebrew schools. This wasn’t specific to just Jews, all minorities were provided with state-supported schools. Because the Yiddish Teachers Union (Central Union of Yiddish Schools) and the Hebrew Teachers Union (HaMoreh) couldn’t get along on the topic of language and culture, their minority, the Jews, were granted separate schools, which the Jews in Latvia Museum depicts.[32]In the actual exhibit, Yiddish culture is represented through the flags of different Jewish societies in Latvia, such as the flag of The Jewish Liberators of Latvia, and the flag of the Jewish Tinsmiths. These flags which are present in the museum show how Jewish culture was Yiddish speaking culture, and portrays the fact that Yiddish was considered prominent enough to go on flags next to the language of the country, Latvian.
In an interview with the Director of the Jews in Latvia Museum, Ilya Lensky, he explained that the representation of Yiddish culture in Jewish museums in Eastern Europe varies based on location, for instance, according to Lensky, the POLIN Museum has a strong emphasis on Yiddish culture in the 1920’s and 1930’s, whereas an old exhibit at the Jewish Museum in Budapest, Hungary never once mentioned Yiddish culture because Hungarians were quick to get rid of Yiddish.[33] In other places, such as the Czech Republic, Yiddish culture isn’t mentioned in exhibits simply because Yiddish was marginal in that area of Europe and a specific Yiddish culture didn’t develop.
Lensky explained that Jews have been a central part of European culture for centuries and setting up a Jewish museum in Eastern Europe should be prioritized just as much as setting up any other type of museum in Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe has natural history museums, local history museums, and migration museums, and Jewish history is simply another part of history that must be represented through a museum. “I don’t think the Jews are less important than hedge hogs or mosquitos, things displayed in the natural history museums,” Lensky said, explaining that Jewish history in Europe should be displayed just as much as other forms of history.[34] However, he added that Jewish culture is an integral part of local history and he would actually prefer to see Jews narrated in local history museums, rather than in a separate entity as Jewish museums. Instead of isolated Jewish museums, Lensky feels there should just be local history museums with a section of the museums devoted to the local Jewish history. “Non-Jews are discovering Jewish culture as a part of their history and see Jewish culture as one of the important world cultures they can become a pioneer in showing,” Lensky said.[35] Among Jewish history scholars in Europe, many are non-Jews, and Jewish museums or Jewish exhibits in Eastern Europe not only provide a place of learning about Jews, but a place to delve into contemporary society.
In some parts of Eastern Europe witnessing a Jewish revival, museums play a part in this revival process. Lensky explained that the role of Jewish museums in this process “depends on locality, in some places Jewish museums are important players, and some [other] places are nonexistent in the [revival] field, it is normal but also not un-normal.”[36] The Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, Poland tries to participate in Jewish cultural life, by hosting events in their building for the Jewish community. In other places, the museums are not connected in any way to the Jewish community; as national institutions they do not have a mandated function to participate in the Jewish community.
What many consider a destroyed Jewish past in Europe, others set about to remedy through discovering a way to make the Jewish past meaningful to modern society, even in places where Jews have almost ceased to exist. The effort both Jews and non-Jews put in to pay homage to lost and revived Ashkenazi societies, is an extraordinary phenomenon. This effort demonstrates how years after wars and tragedy, people are still devoting their lives to the cause of European Jewish history, purely out of love and passion. Jewish museums are a contribution not only to the Jewish narrative, but to a Jewish future. These museums in the twenty-first century have a unique role to play, educating both Jewish and non-Jewish communities, in Eastern Europe and around the world. Jewish museums in Eastern Europe serve as places of reflection, inspiration, growth and understanding, utilizing history while simultaneously providing groundwork for the European Jewish future.
Like Jewish museums in Eastern Europe, Jewish museums around the world encounter their own parallel issues of how to represent certain pieces of history or culture specific to location. For Jewish museums in Eastern Europe, the challenge tacked on that Jewish museums in Western Europe, The United States, Israel and the rest of the world don’t have to confront nearly, if at all, to the same extent, is the challenge of how to represent Yiddish culture within Eastern European society, in a museum. Yiddish brought more than a language to the people who spoke it, but a culture. Its significance during the mid-nineteenth century is a part of Eastern European Jewish history that can’t be left out, and Jewish museums in Eastern Europe must find a way to tell the story accurately.
Madison Jackson graduated from Binghamton University in May, 2019, with a Bachelor of Art’s degree in Judaic Studies and English and a minor in History. Passionate about contemporary Jewish life in Europe, Madison took a number of relevant courses at Binghamton, including Modern Yiddish Culture, where she wrote her paper “More than Memory: Jewish Museums in Eastern Europe.” Additionally, during her undergraduate career, Madison did an independent study course on European Jewish Museum History, created an exhibit on Jewish food from around the world for the Hanukkah House Museum in Binghamton, spent a summer as a Goldman Fellow where she interned for the American Jewish Committee Central Europe office in Warsaw, Poland, and virtually interned for Paideia—The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.
References
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Carmen Iovitu (Director of the Romanian Jewish History Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
Cohen, Richard. Jewish Icons Art and Society in Modern Europe. California: The Regents of the University of California, 1998.
Gruber, Samuel. “Preservation of Jewish Heritage: Past, Present, Future.” Keynote Address, Managing Jewish Immovable Heritage in Europe, Krakow, Poland, April 23-25, 2013.
Ilya Lensky (Director of the Jews in Latvia Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Why do Jewish Museums Matter? An International Perspective.” Keynote Address, Association of European Jewish Museums Conference, London, England, November 19-22, 2011.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. Twelve Principles. The Peoplehood Papers 18, December, 2016.
Litvak, Olga. 2010. Museums and Exhibitions. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Museums_and_Exhibitions (accessed April 28, 2018).
Polonsky, Antony. Context and Controversy. The Peoplehood Papers 18, December, 2016.
Rothstein, Edward. “The Problem with Jewish Museums.” Mosaicmagazine.com, February, 2016. https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2016/02/the-problem-with-jewish-museums/ (accessed April 09, 2018).
Shandler, Jeffrey. “The Jewish Museum Effect.” The Peoplehood Papers 18, December, 2016.
[1] Shandler, Jeffrey. The Jewish Museum Effect. The Peoplehood Papers 18, December, 2016.
[2] Polonsky, Antony. Context and Controversy. The Peoplehood Papers 18, December, 2016.
[3] Litvak, Olga. 2010. Museums and Exhibitions. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe.http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Museums_and_Exhibitions (accessed April 28, 2018).
[4] Cohen, Richard. Jewish Icons Art and Society in Modern Europe. California: The Regents of the University of California, 1998.
[5] Cohen, Richard. Jewish Icons Art and Society in Modern Europe. California: The Regents of the University of California, 1998.
[6] Litvak, Olga. 2010. Museums and Exhibitions. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe.http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Museums_and_Exhibitions (accessed April 28, 2018).
[7] Cohen, Richard. Jewish Icons Art and Society in Modern Europe. California: The Regents of the University of California, 1998.
[8] Cohen, Richard. Jewish Icons Art and Society in Modern Europe. California: The Regents of the University of California, 1998.
[9] Cohen, Richard. Jewish Icons Art and Society in Modern Europe. California: The Regents of the University of California, 1998.
[10] Cohen, Richard. Jewish Icons Art and Society in Modern Europe. California: The Regents of the University of California, 1998.
[11] Berkovic, Sally. “Jewish Museums: Are They Good for the Jews?” ejewishphilanthropy.com. https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/jewish-museums-are-they-good-for-the-jews/ (accessed April 09, 2018).
[12] Berkovic, Sally. “Jewish Museums: Are They Good for the Jews?” ejewishphilanthropy.com. https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/jewish-museums-are-they-good-for-the-jews/ (accessed April 09, 2018).
[13] Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Why do Jewish Museums Matter? An International Perspective.” Keynote Address, Association of European Jewish Museums Conference, London, England, November 19-22, 2011.
[14] Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Why do Jewish Museums Matter? An International Perspective.” Keynote Address, Association of European Jewish Museums Conference, London, England, November 19-22, 2011.
[15] Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Why do Jewish Museums Matter? An International Perspective.” Keynote Address, Association of European Jewish Museums Conference, London, England, November 19-22, 2011.
[16] Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Why do Jewish Museums Matter? An International Perspective.” Keynote Address, Association of European Jewish Museums Conference, London, England, November 19-22, 2011.
[17] Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. Twelve Principles. The Peoplehood Papers 18, December, 2016.
[18] Rothstein, Edward. “The Problem with Jewish Museums.” Mosaicmagazine.com.https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2016/02/the-problem-with-jewish-museums/ (accessed April 09, 2018).
[19] Rothstein, Edward. “The Problem with Jewish Museums.” Mosaicmagazine.com. https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2016/02/the-problem-with-jewish-museums/ (accessed April 09, 2018).
[20] Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Why do Jewish Museums Matter? An International Perspective.” Keynote Address, Association of European Jewish Museums Conference, London, England, November 19-22, 2011.
[21] Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Why do Jewish Museums Matter? An International Perspective.” Keynote Address, Association of European Jewish Museums Conference, London, England, November 19-22, 2011.
[22] Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Why do Jewish Museums Matter? An International Perspective.” Keynote Address, Association of European Jewish Museums Conference, London, England, November 19-22, 2011.
[23] Gruber, Samuel. “Preservation of Jewish Heritage: Past, Present, Future.” Keynote Address, Managing Jewish Immovable Heritage in Europe, Krakow, Poland, April 23-25, 2013.
[24] Carmen Iovitu (Director of the Romanian Jewish History Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[25] Carmen Iovitu (Director of the Romanian Jewish History Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[26] Carmen Iovitu (Director of the Romanian Jewish History Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[27] Carmen Iovitu (Director of the Romanian Jewish History Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[28] Carmen Iovitu (Director of the Romanian Jewish History Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[29] Carmen Iovitu (Director of the Romanian Jewish History Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[30] Ilya Lensky (Director of the Jews in Latvia Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[31] Ilya Lensky (Director of the Jews in Latvia Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[32] Ilya Lensky (Director of the Jews in Latvia Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[33] Ilya Lensky (Director of the Jews in Latvia Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[34] Ilya Lensky (Director of the Jews in Latvia Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[35] Ilya Lensky (Director of the Jews in Latvia Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
[36] Ilya Lensky (Director of the Jews in Latvia Museum), interviewed by Madison Jackson, Skype Call, March 2018.
Published on January 16, 2020.
Photo: Iconic Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes and the modern building of the Museum of the History of Polish Jewish in the background
