The Jewish Museum in Munich, inaugurated in 2007, is dedicated to the city’s long Jewish history and is part of the massive Jewish Center on Sankt-Jakobs-Platz. This includes a synagogue, a community center, an elementary school, an auditorium, and a kosher restaurant. The center’s first stone was laid on November 9th 2003, exactly 65 years after the somber November devastation that had Munich’s synagogues systematically torn down during the Holocaust – in fact, the actual synagogue stands over the remains of a previous synagogue. The current architecture of the center is governed by two famous forms in Judaism, namely the temple and the tent; all buildings are connected to each other through a network of inviting public passageways.
The museum itself houses temporary and permanent exhibitions across three floors and aims to provide an overview of the local Jewish history and the diversity of the Jewish identity. It explores religion, rites of passage, traditions, and annual festivals through a variety of themes and tones. The exhibits are not Holocaust-centric (although they do, inevitably, mention it) and aim to provide an in-depth look into the unfamiliar aspects of the Jewish faith through interactive and modern methods. The learning center on the top floor features extensive archives of Jewish books, music, and movies.
