Diaspora Museum

This last Friday I went on a field study for my "History of the Jews in the Medieval and Modern Periods." We went to the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. We spent a good 4 hours there, and probably would have stayed longer if they hadn't been closing early because of Sukkot.

To summarize, the museum looks at various aspects of life for Jews in the diaspora and attempts to answer the question of how they remained essentially Jewish, in spite of 2000 years separated not only from their homeland, but also from each other as they were spread across the globe. They put the answer into 6 "Gateways," which, if I remember correctly were:

1. The Life cycle (birth, circumcision, education, bar mitzvah, marriage, etc.) and the the yearly cycle (Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, etc.)

2. Communities, separate from the peoples with whom they dwelt, including their own governmental structures.

3. Remembering (both persecution and accomplishments)

4. Faith (and places faith is expressed)

5. Culture, as anchored in language

6. Among the Nations (and their history as connected to some of the places they were dispersed)

The museum finished with one final gate:

7. The Gate of Return

It was an interesting museum, different because it had very few real artifacts, but many imitations to assist it in the story it told.

Here are a few pictures from the museum:

The Hebrew in the back ground has the heading "Lo Tov" (no good) and clearly the scene in the foreground is that of a wedding. Not to fear, though. The conclusion is not that marriage is not good, but rather that "it is not good for man to be alone." (Genesis 2:18)

In the "Faith" gateway they had a number of model synagogues from all over the world. This first one is from Florence, Italy.

And this one is Chinese.

These two statues are called Ecclesia and Synagoga and I'm sure you can guess what the represent.

Such is the picture of Judaism under 'Christian' rule.

This next picture is an illustration of a passage from the Talmud "If two grasp a garment."

A menorah near the end of the museum - Welcome back to Israel!

After the museum closed we ate some lunch in the Sukkah. Then we went to Old Jaffa for a little while and just explored. If nothing else, the water the is beautiful.

It was a good trip. I got to hang out with my sister AND learn a lot about Judaism and the history of the Jewish people. I'm only auditing the class, but I'm looking forward to learning all sorts of things in there this semester.