Jewish Museum Research Paper

Words: 1259
Pages: 6

The Holocaust was a mass genocide that killed approximately 6 million Jews will never be forgotten. The Jewish Museum was first opened on January 20th, 1904 and has been the epicenter of historic Jewish artifacts. The Jewish Museum is devoted to exploring Jewish culture and art from ancient to modern art and it was first of its kind in the New York. Although art exhibitions may attract criticism or positive reviews, the Jewish Museum contains a special collection of 30,000 works of fine art, antiquities, folk art, and ceremonial objects that are more than 4,000 years old. The last art exhibition that provoked an uproar was the 1999 art display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, featured Virgin Mary sprinkled with elephant dung. In 2002 , Jewish …show more content…
The Lego Concentration Camp Set was created by Zbigniew Libera, created LEGO pieces constructed small models of the concentration camps including barracks and crematoria. As for the “Self-Portrait at Buchenwald: It’s the Real Thing” it was created by Alan Schechner, holding a Diet Coke inserted into Margaret Bourke White’s famous photograph. Elie Wiesel, Nobel-Prize winning Auschwitz survivor has described the art exhibit of the Jewish Museum as a betrayal. Published in The Times:Jewish museum show ‘a betrayal’:[Final 4 …show more content…
However, it was not enough as Holocaust survivors and children of survivors asked the Jewish Museum to remove the offending art pieces. “My own mother, who wears the number she got in Auschwitz to this day, is hurt by this.,” said Dov Hikind, whose mother survived Auschwitz. After complying with the protesters agreement, the Jewish Museum put up signs before entering the exhibition. The sign wrote,” Some Holocaust survivors have been disturbed by the works of art shown beyond this point. Visitors may choose to avoid the works by exiting the exhibition through the door to the left.”However, people were not happy and Hikind responded against it. “When I saw that thing with the Coke can, hey, give me a break. I can’t think of anything to frame the art that would make it acceptable.,” said