Jewish Museum London on the Move – Building Closure Ceremony 30 July
Survivor Bea Green lighting a candle The Jewish Museum London closed to all visitors on 30 July in order to progress plans for a new Future Museum in a more prominent location. Over 400 people came along for a packed day of baking sessions in the community learning kitchen, behind the scenes tours, object handling from the collections and family crafts. We held a Building Closure Ceremony at 4 pm Sunday 30 July with hundreds in attendance to help us celebrate the achievements of the Museum in our Albert Street building before it closed to visitors.
Trustee and former Museum Director, Frances Jeens, led the Ceremony remembering the hundreds of thousands of school children, who had taken part in learning programmes and the large audiences that join us for family Festivals and hugely successful exhibitions in the past. Four of our Holocaust Survivors and Refugees from Nazi persecution joined us to light a candle to celebrate their involvement and legacy and Museum volunteer Rabbi Geoffrey Shisler read a special blessing he had written for the building, collections and people involved with the Museum. (screen grab of blessing with title – Special Blessing for Jewish Museum London by Rabbi Geoffrey Shisler) A selection of objects from the Museum’s amazing Designated collections were on display during the Ceremony to show that our collections are at the heart of our current and future plans for the Museum.
After closing to the public in July, the Museum teams are packing up the collections to go into special museum conservation storage and clearing the building over the next few months. We are talking to a number of organisations about offering temporary displays of our objects in London and other regions of the country from the autumn and our award winning learning programmes will move out into the community from October with more outreach in schools and virtual programmes.
A huge thank you goes to everyone who has supported the Museum over the last few years – this has enabled us to achieve all the amazing programmes and activities at the Museum celebrating Jewish life, faith and culture with all our visitors. Our plans to continue with our award winning learning programmes and to share our collections online and through temporary displays after leaving the Museum building still very much need your generous support. You can do this by taking out membership to help make our future plans a reality in these difficult times or by making a one off donation with Gift Aid via our web site : Make a Donation – The Jewish Museum London
Watch this space for news of our future plans and progress on packing up our amazing collections!
Acting Director
Sue Shave
