The Jewish Museum of Belgium (french: Musée juif de Belgique, nl, Joods Museum van België) is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, focusing on the

history of the Jews in Belgium The history of the Jews in Belgium goes back to the 1st century CE until today. The Jewish community numbered 66,000 on the eve of the Second World War but, after the war and The Holocaust, is now less than half that number. Today, Belgium is ...

History

The idea of founding a Jewish museum emerged in the late 1970s and was based on two motifs: the lack of a Jewish museum dealing with history and art, although Judaism has been present in Belgium since the Middle Ages, and the small number of public collections. As part of the celebrations surrounding Belgium's 150th birthday in 1979, Baron Bloch, then President of the Central Council and alongside his successor in office, Baron Schnek, suggested driving exhibition of art and history of Belgian Jewry. The event was successful, and a small group was founded in 1981 which put together a collection as well as a financing basis and the purchase of a property. Official support was finally gained in the mid-1980s. Initially, the Ministry of Labor and Finance, later also the French and Flemish-speaking communities and the regions agreed to support the group's efforts. Work continued on makeshift premises above the Beth Israel Synagogue on Rue de Stalingrad (Stalingradstraat), which were provided by the Central Council. The museum has been compiling its collection since 1990 and installed its first permanent exhibition there. In 2005, the company moved to its current premises on Rue des Minimes (Miniemenstraat).

Museum and collections

The museum has a collection of items which relate to

Jewish customs ''Minhag'' ( he, מנהג "custom", classical pl. מנהגות, modern pl. , ''minhagim'') is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, ''Nusach'' (), refers to the traditional order and form of the prayers. Etym ...

from

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, dating back as far as the 18th century and mostly from the region to the east of river

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

and countries around the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

. The museum has 750 objects of judaica, 1,250

works of art A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

, and an archive of 20,000

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...

s, 5,000

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

s, LPs, and

compact cassette The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

s. The museum also has six thematic libraries containing a total of 25,000 works and editions, including works in

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, works of Jewish artists, and

genealogies Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...

Shooting

On 24 May 2014, four peopletwo visiting Israelis and two people who worked at the museumwere killed in a shooting at the museum.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Jewish Belgian history

Museums established in 2005 Museums in Brussels Jews and Judaism in Brussels City of Brussels 2005 establishments in Belgium

History

Museum and collections

Shooting

See also

References

External links