The Jewish Museum in the British capital London is to re-open next month following a US$ 15 million expansion project. Based in north London, the original Victorian building was linked with its neighbor, a former piano factory, tripling the museum’s space. Its four main galleries are devoted to: an introduction; history of British Jews; Jewish faith; and the Holocaust.
Among the new displays will be a Medieval mikvah dating from the 13th century, on view for the first time since it was excavated in 2001, and a gallery dedicated to the testimony of British-born Holocaust survivor Leon Greenman OBE. The inaugural temporary exhibition ‘Illumination – Hebrew Treasures from the Vatican and Major British Collections’ opens in June and is scheduled to run through October 2010. It includes manuscripts acquired by the Vatican for its own internal scholarship, but which have never been publicly displayed. Other shows being planned will look at Jewish figures in the entertainment industry, the importance of food in Jewish culture, and comic book super heroes.
Founded in 1932, the Jewish Museum merged in 1995 with the London Museum of Jewish Life. They continued to run on separate sites, but have now been brought together in the expanded building.