The new Israel Museum
We finally got around to visiting the newly renovated Israel Museum in Jerusalem. It is a wonderful, beautiful Museum, and a great improvement over its predecessor. It was reopened a few months ago.
The main problem with the original Israel Museum was that it had a mile long walk uphill in the sun with no shade from the entrance to the actual exhibits. This was designed by someone with no human considerations. The new version has a tunnel that is cool and relatively flat, and an escalator and elevator at the end that take you up into a large new building half way up the hill that provide a focus for the museums's collections and from which seven different areas radiate, so it is easy to go to each and then return to the center. The feeling of the whole place is open, airy and bright, although a bit sterile.
We chose to take a free tour in English both of the archaeology collection (up to the Roman era) and the Judaica collection (although we skipped out after some time). In each case the docents were engaging lady volunteers with a nice demeanor. The archaeology collection at the Israel Museum is unique because 90% of the items were actually unearthed in Israel, not stolen or "acquired" as in most western European museums. We also, visited the four synagogues transported from around the world, from Italy (near Venice), India (Cochin), Germany and Surinam (S. America) that are now grouped conveniently together. Each of them dates from the 1700's and they were all rescued from neglect and decay as their communities either died or moved elsewhere. I like to sit in them and reflect on the thousands of Jews who prayed there over the centuries.
We then visited the much expanded and improved art galleries and we joined a tour in English of modern art (from Impressionism to dada). There is a new gallery for contemporary Israeli art, and we also toured a special exhibit of drawings and videos by William Kentridge, a South African artist with very innovative approaches. Note that the Dead Sea Scrolls and the model of Jerusalem from the second temple period are still there, but we skipped them as we had seen them before. Finally and most importantly we had a sandwich in the Museum cafe. A very nice day out and highly recommended for a visit.
The main problem with the original Israel Museum was that it had a mile long walk uphill in the sun with no shade from the entrance to the actual exhibits. This was designed by someone with no human considerations. The new version has a tunnel that is cool and relatively flat, and an escalator and elevator at the end that take you up into a large new building half way up the hill that provide a focus for the museums's collections and from which seven different areas radiate, so it is easy to go to each and then return to the center. The feeling of the whole place is open, airy and bright, although a bit sterile.
We chose to take a free tour in English both of the archaeology collection (up to the Roman era) and the Judaica collection (although we skipped out after some time). In each case the docents were engaging lady volunteers with a nice demeanor. The archaeology collection at the Israel Museum is unique because 90% of the items were actually unearthed in Israel, not stolen or "acquired" as in most western European museums. We also, visited the four synagogues transported from around the world, from Italy (near Venice), India (Cochin), Germany and Surinam (S. America) that are now grouped conveniently together. Each of them dates from the 1700's and they were all rescued from neglect and decay as their communities either died or moved elsewhere. I like to sit in them and reflect on the thousands of Jews who prayed there over the centuries.
We then visited the much expanded and improved art galleries and we joined a tour in English of modern art (from Impressionism to dada). There is a new gallery for contemporary Israeli art, and we also toured a special exhibit of drawings and videos by William Kentridge, a South African artist with very innovative approaches. Note that the Dead Sea Scrolls and the model of Jerusalem from the second temple period are still there, but we skipped them as we had seen them before. Finally and most importantly we had a sandwich in the Museum cafe. A very nice day out and highly recommended for a visit.
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:57 AM
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