Friends of the Museum

Maria Eichhorn, Projekt Hollmannstraße, 1987/2024, Stones and other objects found on the site marked with red paint; pipes and furniture embedded in the ground, photo documentation; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe, courtesy the artist

In 1987, the young art student Maria Eichhorn began looking for a place to hold an exhibition in urban space. The district authorities in Kreuzberg, Berlin, placed a large undeveloped site at her disposal. Eichhorn needed to apply for offcial permits, but the process was characterized by openness and trust in her artistic intentions. She marked stones and other objects found on the site with red paint and placed iron pipes and furniture elements in the ground.

Today, the Libeskind building of the Jewish Museum stands on the site. The city archives contain no records of Eichhorn’s several-month project, nor are there traces on the property itself.

In the exhibition, a flmic and photographic documentation provides information on Eichhorn’s project from the 1980s. It is projected onto a concrete surface known as the Void Wall. The empty space behind the wall runs through the entire building, extending from the basement to the roof, and connects the old court of appeals, which can be seen in Eichhorn’s work, with the new building and exhibition spaces. In many of her works, Eichhorn explores the nature and history of places and institutions as well as the rules associated with them. The Hollmannstraße 1987/2024 project was developed especially for the Access Kafka exhibition and creates a link between the former property and the present-day museum by highlighting the signifcance of art in public spaces.

For facilitating the installation Projekt Hollmannstraße 1987/2024 by Maria Eichhorn thanks to FREUNDE DES JMB.

JMB on.tour

Since September 2022, the Jewish Museum Berlin has been traveling through­out Germany with a new mobile exhibition entitled on.tour! Topics and content from the new core exhibition are organized into three learning units. Students get to discuss the material and explore how it relates to their own lives. JMB on.tour brings the Jewish Museum Berlin to schools that are unable to visit the museum in Berlin. The FRIENDS OF THE JMB support and make this project possible. 

Watch the on.tour trailer (in German)

ANOHA

The story of Noah’s ark from the Torah takes center stage at the children’s museum. According to tradition, the ark was an enormous boat that Noah used to save his family and all of the animal species from the flood. More than 150 animals are gathered in the heart of the ANOHA children’s world – a gigantic round ark made of wood, designed by the American firm Olson Kundig Architecture and Design.

The FRIENDS OF THE JMB are also ANOHA FRiENDS. The FRIENDS OF THE JMB have supported the children's world since the very first plans and ensure that the animals on the ark are also among friends.

The Lotte Kaliski Room

In the middle of the Libeskind building, the Lotte Kaliski Room offers a protected retreat. It was specially designed for and by neurodiverse people to engage with the exhibition themes and museum architecture away from the hustle and bustle and is available to all visitors to the JMB to pause, exchange ideas and reflect.

In founding the Private Forest School Kaliski, the school's namesake followed a special educational concept: outdoor lessons, lots of exercise and small classes for individual support. Lotte Kaliski herself was often ostracized due to her physical disability. In 1939, her school had to close by order of the Nazi regime.

One of her pupils was JMB founding director W. Michael Blumenthal: 

The three years I spent at the Kaliski School were undoubtedly the most important, most satisfying and most profound educational experience of my life.

The Lotte Kaliski Room was made possible by the support of the FRIENDS OF THE JMB.

Tumtum by Gil Yefman

Tumtum, Gil Yefman’s eye-catching instal­lation in the JMB’s Glass Courtyard, is part of the exhibition Sex: Jewish Positions. The rabbis of antiquity went beyond the male-female binary and defined multiple gender identity categories. They used the Hebrew term tumtum for individuals whose hidden or am­biguous sexual organs defied classi­fication. The idea of ambiguity inspired Israeli artist Gil Yefman to create this colorful instal­lation. 

The lavish production of this work was made possible by support of the Friends of the JMB. 

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Scenes from the Babylonian Talmud by Noa Snir, Berlin, 2024

This series by Berlin-based Israeli artist Noa Snir is a unique highlight among the many con­temporary artistic works in the exhibition Sex: Jewish Positions. In it, the artist illus­trates ten sexually explicit scenes from the Babylonian Talmud. She high­lights how early rabbis were far from prudish and dis­cussed all sorts of questions relating to sexual morals, demonstrating a broad range of per­spectives. 

The commiss­ioned work and its purchase for the museum collec­tion were made possible by the Friends of the JMB. 

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Purchase of the sculpture Henriette by Marion Kahnemann from the exhibition Another Country: Jewish in the GDR

Henriette Schmager, a member of Dresden’s Jewish community, celebrated her 90th birthday in the mid 1980s. “Henriette was a simple innkeeper. Her family survived the Shoah by hiding on a small ship near Potsdam. Her 90th birthday coincided with Erich Honecker’s attempt to improve relations with the US, and since he needed a positive represen­tation of Jewish life in the GDR, her birthday was declared a state occasion and celebrated in the city’s best hotel. GDR TV was on-site to capture the event, which it broadcast on its news channel, 'Aktuelle Kamera'. I remember Henriette standing in the hotel vestibule, looking forlorn and over­whelmed among all the officials. She was wearing a bright blue dress with a large Star of David,” the artist, born in 1960, recalls. 

The purchase of this work was made possible by the Friends of the JMB. 

To the podcast episode with Marion Kahnemann 

from me to we by Leon Kahane

The artist’s work deals with utopia and the culture of remem­brance, with enemy images of the GDR and self-images in an interplay with the bio­graphy of his grand­parents and their descendants. 

The mixed media instal­lation from me to we by Leon Kahane was specially commiss­ioned for the exhibition Another Country. Jewish in the GDR. The commiss­ioned work and its purchase for the museum collection were made possible by the Friends of the JMB. 

Leon Kahane talks about from me to we