What and Whom Are Jewish Museums For?

Jews have a long history in Germany, but few of them were Zionists. There were probably more Jewish Communists. Rosa Luxemburg said she wanted no privileges as a Jew. Their mission was, "Freedom for all mankind." Not just the Jews. Not "except Palestinians." Still is. To equate Zionism with Judaism is an insult to the memories of the German Jews, many of whom died fighting the Nazis, who were not Zionists.

I will be devil’s advocate and ask the following: Why are humans allowing religion or culture to classify them? The Holocaust, The Armenian Genocide, Slavery, Wars, etc. are all evil and all carried out in the name religion, race, power and by sick individuals. All man made. When are we going to celebrate traditions, cultures and religion in moderation Instead of becoming enslaved to them? Our traditions and religion should just be the bond connecting us to our ancestors and not used as an excuse to proudly deferential us from society. Religion is man made and is being used as an excuse to divide, hate and justify people’s rating. This is the 21st century, traveling and getting to know people around the globe has become easier but somehow we are looking for ways to proudly only identify with our own. Curiosity for the different and unknown has declined and religion and nationalism are taking over. We want to claim our past heritage instead of creating our own. Everything ready made to adopt rather than working hard towards a better future. Let’s face it, we are the product of our family, our community, and our environment and let’s stop pretending that we are more special than others because our zip code is different.

Definition of irony: Jews against having a non-Jewish director of a Jewish museum. In Germany no less.

The museum exists and is popular because it is in Germany, the country that murdered six million Jews. It can tell the story about the Jews in Germany that goes back over 1000 years and delve into their current status. But it has no business worrying about Israel and the Palestinians, especially when there are hints of creeping antisemitism. I suppose it is preferable to have a Jewish director but a non-Jew who is an expert on the subject of Jews in Germany should also be considered for the post.

Personally, I wish Daniel Liebeskind would stop designing Jewish museums. He grew up in my beautiful Bronx neighborhood, a mecca of humanistic architecture, which he said influenced him highly. I can't imagine how.

I totally understand why Jewish museums are such a big tourist draw throughout Europe due to their location, architectural and historical significance. And it definitely seems that non-Jewish Europeans are very proud of showing off their Jewish past. But it is also apparent that Europe prefers its Jews as part of history (as in ‘already dead’). Live Jews they’re not particularly fond of.

“Guilt is not a forward-looking sentiment,” Ms. Dekel said. Perhaps it’s not. But guilt is a powerful and constructive sentiment if it compels us to avoid repeating the horrors of the past by clearly delineating right from wrong. Anti Semitism is rearing it’s ugly head again in Europe. I say this as an American of African descent. Quite simply put, the leader of the Jewish Musuem should be a Jew.

I've met many Jews like myself who are not afraid to honestly consider the conflicts and complexities of Jewish identity in the modern world. This consideration and introspection seems a critical part of our heritage. When visiting Berlin last spring, I saw that sprawling Jerusalem exhibition. It was thoughtful, fascinating and extensive (even a little exhausting). I recall occasional depictions of non-Jewish groups within the ancient city, and they were regarded with basic human respect and dignity. For some, this perspective is a transgression! It's absurd...and disgusting. Being a Jew does not require an endorsement of hatred, persecution and demonization of any enemy — regardless of what any particular member of the Israeli government may think.

Jewish museums are to remind us of the horrors of the holocaust and what evil can accomplish. They also can shut up holocaust deniers, as the Palm Beach principal, who was recently fired, learned when he questioned whether the holocaust really occurred. This was an educator, an administrator. When my husband and I toured in Nuremberg, Germany, and visited the Holocaust Museum, our guide was very moving when he described how uneducated the German youth are about the holocaust. He was passionate about not forgetting the past even though Germany was anxious to "move on" and not teach it in their schools. So I would say yes, it is very, very important to support these museums and to have lots of field trips to educate the youth.

This is why we need a Jewish perspective. Israel is 21% Arab. The Gaza strip is 0% Jewish and the West Bank is 21% Jewish. The notion that any future Palestinian state is supposed to have zero Jews in it is typical of the double standard Jews have faced throughout history. When Israel was created, Jews in other parts of the Arab world were kicked out. I know because I saw the Star of David still engraved in stone on a former synagogue in Tripoli, Libya. Jordan was supposed to be the homeland if desired for Arabs living in what became Israel. Jordan controlled the West Bank until 1967 and no one called for a Palestinian state there. The only reason Israel controls it now is because they were attacked from there with the intention of eradicating Israel. Israel has a history of returning land in exchange for peace. She had tried more than once to make the same deal to return the West Bank but can't get the commitment for peace...to live and let live. The idea that only Israel is responsible for the current state of affairs is false and now this article is saying that even a Jewish museum is not allowed to make these points.

I went to that museum in Berlin. It produced anger, revulsion, and a desire to retch uncontrollably. Same reaction to the Museum of Lynching in an unrepentant Alabama. Same reaction to Jallianwala bagh (some readers may get this reference). I suspect that is precisely part of what these places/ museums are supposed to produce. If only Jewish people can run a Holocaust museum, only a black person can run NAACP or the Museum of Lynching, it suggests that others will never know enough. I suspect this is true. I will never know on account of not being Jewish, Black, or a native of Amritsar in 1919 who escaped the bullets. I am aware that museums will not rid European DNA of its antisemitism, nor race-based hatred etched into the American DNA. But they help. Debating the virtue of 'birth" seems irrelevant.

The purpose of museum exhibitions is to provoke thought, not offer consolatory confirmation of the truth of identities. Nor empty defenses of victims who should not be. An example of this misconception: The head of an organization representing Germany's Jews is quoted here as saying, “The Jewish Museum Berlin represented positions that were not representative of those held by the majority of Jewish people in Berlin.” That is, it represented what was not representative. There are museum exhibitions that show you things and tell you what they mean; they aim to tell you what you should think. They are advertisements for a pre-determined truth. The filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, who knows something about artistic representations of the Holocaust, has said that film can be either "a thought that forms" (rhetoric) or "a form that thinks." Art and the writing of history are ways of thinking. Understanding the past, or anything, means actively making sense of it starting from what we know or see. Thinking goes beyond the given. It alone is beyond mere representation of what is. It thus can help make different futures possible. The writing of history is an inquiry; museum exhibits show elements of possible inquiries. The task is certainly vital, especially today. The past is set in stone in Being but not memory or imagination. What happened can happen again differently. And Germany should mourn the disappearance of the Jews as also its own loss.

One of Berlin's must-see museums, the Jüdische Museum is a draw not only to foreigners of all descriptions, but to native Berliners, Prussians and other Germans. The vibe is unexpectedly devoid of harsh judgment or recrimination but instead evokes a vanished way of life that is still accessible since the adversity of Shoah and war is relatively recent. In a country where there an animus of anti-Semitism has never been extinguished, the museum's direction should appropriately include rabbinical and secular German Jews as well.

A museum should display the best or worst of humanity for people to be inspired or reminded of the worst humanity is capable of. Who runs the museum is insignificant. When museums’ purpose is to have us constantly looking to the past, focusing on the hatred of humanity, they perpetrate victimhood, hatred and mistrust. Looking back to not repeat the past is normal, reliving the past is not. We all need to move on for the sake of the new generation. We need to be inspired, be positive and hopeful for our species to survive. Negative reminders help negative people to justify negative actions. We don’t need museums to remind us of the atrocities of man kind. We have kids in cages, children dying in Yemen and Palestinians living in horrific conditions at the mercy of people who are occupying their land.

I'm a volunteer at San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum, and we have over the course of my involvement had many exhibits on different aspects of Jewish culture (from around the world), famous Jewish people, political movements, artists and the like. There are also exhibits where artists are asked to respond to Jewish concepts, ideas and themes. It is fascinating. In Judaism we ask questions. We argue. We come from all different backgrounds. Once a man stopped me in the hall to ask what was so Jewish about the three current exhibitions. None of them were about Israel, he went on, and to him that seemed weird and off-topic. I thought about how to answer him. After a moment I responded that we do sometimes have exhibits that touch on Israel but that for many Jewish people in America and elsewhere, our experiences go beyond Israel and strict interpretations of the liturgy. We talked for a while and I remarked that our discussion was a prime example of what our museum tries to foster. Should the head of a Jewish museum be Jewish? Probably. But when I am at our museum events I don't think about the religious or cultural beliefs of our visitors, the other volunteers or the staff. I mostly just marvel and how art and culture and activism bring us all together - sometimes for a lecture or an exhibit opening, sometimes for a teen night, art projects for children or other outreach into our broader community. If that doesn't reflect Jewish values, I do not know what does.

The world is full of museums that reflect humanity's past artistic and intellectual triumphs. There are also many that depict our capacity for evil and destruction. The best of those breath life and understanding into what we see by acknowledging that the past is very much a part of who we are now and what might become of us in the future. Controlling the narrative and avoiding the active participation of diverse views about the past and our future is nothing but a robbery of the potential for insight and perspective.

A good question, who is the museum for? And what types of exhibits are relevant. The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco is a strange bird. Many of the exhibits seem to have a tenuous connection to Judaism at best. Also an exhibit showing Amy Winehouse's dresses and tchotchkes growing up....London had that exhibit as well. I don't really get it as that leads parents having to explain narcotic addiction to their five year old kids on family day at the museum.

Museums should be run by professionals with appropriate training and knowledge of the field they have been chosen for. Personal background is secondary .

One of the essences of Judaic culture is the discussion between points of view. Antithesis of dictators. Maybe this is why Jews have resisted tyrants through the centuries.

A Jew must be the head of the Jewish museum of Berlin. A museum about Jews must come from a Jewish perspective not an outsiders perspective on Jews.

To my mind, the double-standard apparent here is infuriating. Do you imagine that in an African-American heritage museum in the US south it would be so obvious that a white person can be in charge? That the museum's exhibition focus would be about non-black people? Or even about black people's aggression towards non-blacks in Africa? And yet, when it comes to a Jewish museum, suddenly it becomes outrageous to expect a Jew run the place, or that the museum would dedicate its exhibition to Jews and Judaism... Why is that? Is it because Jews, unlike black people, do not suffer historical or present persecution? But the data suggests the exact opposite. Not only are Jews the historical no. 1 victim of hatred on European soil, form the Middle ages up to and culminating in the Holocaust, but also Jews *today* are the group suffering most from hate crimes in Europe, far more than any other group, including recent immigrant and Muslims, and at a rate far above their tiny share of the population. So, if Jews are a group suffering from persecution and hate both historically and at the present-day, how to explain this double standard? This acceptance, indeed *expectation* that Jewish organizations would focus on anything but Jews and Judaism? I have an answer, but the readers here would not like it - it is deeply ingrained antisemitism, present among many who honestly think that they are above prejudice, yet their unconscious, but manifest, bias and double-standards say otherwise.

Copy Editor: Is that your participle dangling?

Sometimes one's best friends are not friends at all. Given the weight of Christian antisemitism over 1900 years one naturally assumes that Christians or ex-Christians are the least likely to be understanding and sympathetic to Jewish concerns. But here we have a brilliant non-Jewish and even! German! scholar of Judaism in its many aspects who is superior to most Jewish scholars. Those Jews, Israeli or not, attacking Prof. Schafer are not the friend of Jews.

Imagine a white man running Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture or National Museum of American Indian?

Imagine the outage if there were a debate about whether the head of a museum about the Black Experience in America should be African American or not?

Who cares if a "Jewish Museum" hires a Jew or a non-Jew as its director? Either one should pursue the mission of such an institution which, it seems to me, should include assessment of the tragedies that have befallen the Jews (such as the Holocaust) and those that their representatives have caused or continue (such as the treatment of the Palestinians), together with Jewish culture, history, music, science, literature, and other accomplishments on the world stage. That someone does or does not believe in a supernatural being is irrelevant to this pursuit. By the way, if the government of Israel wants to secure its status as the whiny, defensive, reactionary, right-wing fortress that Bibi has been driving it toward, just keep up with these attacks on the museum in Berlin.

Maybe we need more native american museums, I think there's more than enough Jewish memorials, history, and awareness to last forever.. there should be more palestinian museums

As a justification and cloak for Israel’s issues?

It seems to me that a Jewish museum in Germany is an extraordinary opportunity for the country to think, feel and sort out the Holocaust and its many hydra-like heads of compunction and healing. Guilt, in my opinion, most certainly can velocitate forward.

You don't visit Colonial Williamsburg expecting sideshow exhibitions about 18th century England's troubles with Spain and France. Neither does anyone expect to visit the 9/11 Memorial to learn about the insurgent Taliban. Intersectionality disrupts the mission of Jewish museums and institutions, no matter what people think. Jewish museums should be for Jewish history, the Holocaust, and disseminating information ongoing antisemitism. With all due respect, there are plenty of lessons in antisemitism currently happening in Europe to fill galleries without the curation of connecting antisemitism to the plight of Palestinians and genocide in Myanmar. Keep it focused, Jewish museums.

Germany's establishing a Jewish museum is clearly driven by well-earned guilt. That said, it should be hoped that most of the visitors to the museum are not Jews and want to learn what it is about Jews, a nation in and of itself with their own religion from which Christianity is derived, that makes Jews unique.

If the National Museum of African American History, part of the Smithsonian, had appointed a white director, the condemnations would never cease.

Schäfer is a renowned and respected scholar of Judaism, and he was not asked to decide on the museum’s exhibits and activities by asking for majority-vote permission from the German Jewish community. As your article notes, most German Jews are dead, and I would have thought that the Jews now living in Germany would appreciate how little right they have to speak for them. My impression is that the entire academic discussion has been precipitated by Schäfer’s support for BDS. I entirely understand why BDS is unacceptable to many, but support or non-support of it is an inappropriate litmus test for the director of the museum. More generally, the complaint of his sympathetic interest in the situation of Palestinians is wrong-headed. The same complaint has been made against liberal American Jews and (Jewish) Israelis. Ignorance and hatred of a group of people with whom it is in the best of cases difficult to interact but with whom one must interact regardless really is in no one’s best interests, least of all those of a small community that can only thrive in an atmosphere of mutual and preferably neighborly respect.

What makes the question difficult is that the entire "cultural milieu" of modern Western Europe has a strong anti-Semitic bias, exacerbated by the "anti-Zionism" which is in the air. In such an environment the majority of likely museum professionals will likely be at best indifferent to the sensitivities of the non-dead Jews while attempting to generalize and universalize the "Jewish experience" so as to draw the relevant conclusions for our day. Unfortunately the Jewish experience in central Europe is not an example that can be universalized--and such attempts trivialize the whole sorry experience. So should the museum leader necessarily be Jewish? Perhaps not. Should the museum focus more on the particularities of the Jewish experience, and less on the "broader cultural milieu"? Only if it doesn't wish to make it yet another irrelevant member of the broad cultural world. Diversity? Progressive force argue it's always good. As long as all the diverse communities think alike. This is a case where diversity requires a particular viewpoint that may not easily match the diktat of the diversity warriors.

Should the director of a Jewish Museum be Jewish? As someone who has been in Asian Studies most of my life, I realize that I am and always will be an outsider. That’s the fact. I am Jewish, and know many non-Jews who are fascinated by the Jewish world, and some who speak better Hebrew than I do. But there is always (always!) a tone-deaf quality to them on this topic, no matter how deeply they have studied. They are outsiders, just as I am in Asia, although I know a great deal about those histories, cultures and languages. Rule #1 for studying a language is that you should only study with a native speaker. It’s not just words you are studying, it’s a gestalt. A Jewish Museum needs a “native speaker” of that world. It just does, in my opinion.

"The Jewish Museum Berlin represented positions that were not representative of those held by the majority of Jewish people in Berlin". This seems like a fundamental misunderstanding of the function of what I find enjoyable about museums -- their capacity to educate and challenge preconceived ideas. They will become less vital spaces if they are forced to encapsulate broad consensus alone.

I often travel in Europe and sometimes go to the Jewish museum in the city I’m in, but often don’t bother. Frequently it has the following narrative: Jews began living in this city in the so-and-so century. Maybe they bother to explain under what conditions (extra tax, limited area, under the protection of a bishop, limited marriages, etc.). Sometimes they tell about the Crusades (when relevant to the place) and what they did to the Jews on their way to do “God’s work” and rescue Jerusalem from the infidel. They were evicted in ... they were allowed to return in ... There are usually a lot of ritual objects that tell about Jewish ritual, holidays, etc., They tell of the rise of Zionism, the Holocaust and will sometimes tell how many Jews there were murdered. I skip these museums many times because it is the same story every time. The exceptions are Copenhagen where they present a nuanced view of the behavior of the Gentile population, and admit that Jews who returned after their rescue in WWII did not always find it easy to reclaim their property, that their property was used to pay for the expense of their rescue, etc. I found that museum to be far better than most. The museum in Berlin does present a lot about the Jews who were an important part of German history and culture, and I’d say it is better than most (but it is about 3 years ago when I was there). I’d say these museums should educate the general public and also provide a place for Jews to explore their roots.

The question of whether the new director should be Jewish is simple to answer. Is this a publicly funded museum? If it is then the religion or ethnicity of the new director should be irrelevant. The real issue here seems to be whether the new director is sufficiently pro-Israeli, which also seems to mean is someone who follows sufficiently the anti- Palestinian, anti-Iranian, positions of many Israelis, notably Mr. Netanyahu.

They are big business to keep the history of the holocaust alive and well. The machinery puts every year a new movie, a new book, the discovery of new “holocaust survivor” the State of Israel and its friends are always looking for new places to plant these museums. I remembered when the movie Schindler’s list come out, it was discovered that in Argentina was living his widow. Living simple and surviving as a retiree. The director of the movie, never helped the old woman... although he made millions of dollars with the old woman’s husband’s story. Sad isn’t?

As for the position that it’s OK for a non-Jew to lead the Jewish museum. Would it be OK, then, for a non-black to lead an African museum or black studies, or a male to lead a women’s museum or women’s studies? Or for any "area studies" institution to have a leader who is not merely an expert in it but physically representative of it? Is the goal, therefore, to have an exception or consistency?

Prof. Dr. Peter Schaefer is an outstanding scholar of ancient Judaism. I greatly respect his scholarship and like him very much as a person. He is certainly not anti-Israel and was very much a scapegoat in this affair. The director of a Jewish Museum does not have to be Jewish, just as scholars of Judaica or Judaism or Jewish Studies do not have to be Jewish. I would argue though that today a director of a museum should have museum experience and come from that world, including administration and somewhat of a background in financial and fundraising matters. I would hope the next director does. As for the purpose of this museum, it is important to remember that this is Berlin and Germany and there is a tremendous degree of sensitivity to past history, be it Holocaust or antisemitism in Germany throughout the ages. In view of modern antisemitism there I can understand the representatives of the Jewish community. Life for them in view of that antisemitism is a struggle and they look askance at a Jewish museum which in their view strengthens the "other side". They are not looking for relevant or debate. They are looking for a memorial to their existence and survival. They are looking a renaissance in the face of adversity When I visited the museum I was not looking for relevant or debate either. I was looking, as they did, for a memorial, and as they do, for sign of a renaissance. I don't know why "people" come to the museum. I know why some Jewish people do.

I don’t have a problem with a non-Jew administering the Jewish museum as long as there is adequate input from a Jewish board. But it seems this exhibit confuses nationality with religion, as do many non Jews. It is inappropriate to have an exhibit discussing the politics of Israel.

I saw the Jerusalem exhibit in Berlin in November and found it pleasantly inclusive of the various religious experiences the city presents: Jewish, Islamic and, yes, Christian. In other words, balanced. it appears that those who objected to this approach are demonstrating an extreme 'Jews only' representation of Israel. In my observation, this is the main stumbling block towards settling the Palestinian problem, building an inclusive state. It is unfortunate. I do have one other comment on the museum specifically. I was surprised to find the Jerusalem exhibit there. I was expecting a museum more focused on the Jewish experience, past and present, in Europe and Germany (and Berlin). I was disappointed (more architecture than substance).

I have only visited one Jewish museum, it was a nonstop bash Germany education. I left there that day and said to myself "Never again " , never again would I subject myself and my heritage to the whims of zealots. Let the Jews view their own culture and history through antagonistic perspectives and they would surely come up short also.

Would we be asking the same questions of the museums documenting slavery? What about that Creation museum (it doesn't even deal with reality)? What about a gallery dedicated to Mappelthorpe? What about the art of the Renaissance? This is absurd.

Until Israel becomes less controversial this kind of thing will continue to be a problem. Any reasonable person recognizes the significant cultural role Jews have played in every country where they have settled and the significant history of discrimination and repression. That is not in dispute nor should it be. But when the state of Israel and its controversial policies regarding the Palestinian people and the ongoing issues in the occupied territories gets mixed in, things get complicated really fast. I am not sure how those two things are divorced from each other in these times.

Imagine if there was a Christian museum. Would people expect that museum to never do exhibits on the interactions between Christians and non-Christians? For example, would an exhibit on the Crusades be considered anti-Christian? Would an exhibit on the expulsion of non-Christians from many European countries over the past millennium be treated with "That should go in a Jewish museum"? In some ways I wish that all museums dedicated to religions or nationalities or minority communities would over time become museums dedicated to toleration and intolerance, to celebrate how every religious, national and minority community has a history of being harmed by others and harming others.

Jewish museums are for Jews and non-Jews and so should try to present and address different perspectives and levels of knowledge. The experience of visiting any museum should be the basis for discussion among visitors and stimulate them to assess their assumptions, attitudes, and opinions. Past events did not occur in a vacuum, and current events are connected to the past and will have an effect on the future. So it seems to me that a Jewish Museum (as well as others) should include exhibits that are not controversial as well as others that tackle highly controversial issues that are bound to ruffle some feathers or even offend some people. I would also remind people that one can object to Israeli policies and practices but not be anti-Semitic and indeed oppose anti-Semitism along with other toxic discrimination. There should be a concerted effort to make that distinction and those similarities clear, especially to younger people. Critical thinking.

I remember well my trip to Berlin to see two contemporary architectural masterpieces on this subject. The first, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, is a somber, haunting tour de force, designed by the American Jewish architect Peter Eisenman. It is a place for reflection and remembrance on the horrors of the Third Reich - not necessarily in a silent, solemn way like some war memorials, but in an immersive, overwhelming sense of vastness. It's sublime. The Daniel Liebeskind-designed Jewish Museum certainly has its harrowing segments on the Holocaust, but it's also a remarkably in-depth, engaging museum on the history of German Jews for thousands of years. I find it troubling that certain groups are challenging the mission of the latter by confusing it with the mission of the former. The purpose of a museum is to provoke, to inspire debate and reflection, to educate and inform, and to present multiple points of view. To see criticism that the museum isn't following some pre-determined narrative on current political situations in antithetical to the goal of a museum. And the debate asking if the director must be Jewish has me puzzled. Should a highly capable foreign curator take over the Whitney Museum for American Art, I can scarcely imagine a riot forming over their nationality. The issue of increased Antisemitism in Europe is real and it is scary. The solution is not ordering cultural institutions to toe the line of one singular prescribed narrative.

[Among the sharpest critics of the museum in recent months, however, has been the....] Museum critics want museums to represent their point of view. Opposing opinions are anathema.

The Jewish Museum in Berlin is an immportant and vital institution housed in an elegant building. The story reminds me of the Yiddish old bubba miesa that when you have two Jews, you have two synagogues. I visited it some years ago and found it a life changing experience. I support its role in the community as a place to confront serious contemporary issues in Judaism.

We visited the museum last year with excitement and high expectations. We were not disappointed. It is an inspired and inspiring, overwhelmingly essential museum. The issues of the day are distractions from its depth and universality.