Celebrating 25 Years of the Jewish Museum Berlin and FRIENDS OF THE JMB

For a quarter of a century, the JMB has been giving visibility to Jewish culture past and present and creating spaces for dialogue, education, and encounter. For just as long, the FRIENDS OF THE JMB have been actively involved in the museum’s work, supporting educational programs, exhibitions, and many other analog and digital offerings.

In this anniversary year, for example, the FRIENDS OF THE JMB made possible the exhibition Between the Lines: Daniel Libeskind and the Jewish Museum Berlin, which tells the story of how the museum’s distinctive zigzag building came to be. The FRIENDS’ many years of solidarity with the museum can be seen, too, in the anniversary exhibition The Opposite of Now: Artistic Paths to a Different Present. The show features a 1913 Blüthner grand piano from the JMB collection that the FRIENDS restored and shipped from South Africa to Berlin as early as 2004.

The association’s commitment also helps to create new ways of accessing the museum. The FRIENDS sponsored the Lotte Kaliski Room, a quiet retreat in the middle of the Libeskind Building that was designed for and with neurodivergent visitors. As ANOHA FRIENDS, they nurture the Children’s World of the JMB – a space where children can explore the world with every sense, encounter imaginative animals, and experience through play how people, animals, and nature can live together successfully.

In addition, the FRIENDS OF THE JMB have been supporting the museum’s TikTok channel since late 2025. Thanks to their dedication, the JMB can reach out to young people in the places where they seek information and exchange ideas. By offering content that is approachable yet nuanced, the museum opens up fresh perspectives on Jewish life and culture in the past and present.

Through these and many other projects, the FRIENDS OF THE JMB accompany the museum’s work, contributing actively to the visibility of Jewish life, mutual understanding, and democratic ways of living together. Especially in times like the present, FRIENDS membership means sharing responsibility for an institution that asks questions, offers food for thought, and facilitates dialogue on issues of current interest.

“A museum needs people who believe in its idea. The FRIENDS OF THE JMB have been doing so for twenty-five years, with great loyalty, energy, and enthusiasm. I thank them very heartily for that and congratulate the association on its twenty-fifth anniversary.” – Hetty Berg, Director of the JMB

“Over the past 25 years, the FRIENDS OF THE JMB have supported the museum through numerous stages of development and made important projects possible. Above all, this anniversary is an opportunity to thank everyone who has dedicated their time, ideas and support to the JMB over the years.” – Walter Kuna, Chairperson, FRIENDS OF THE JMB

The Summer Festival will be held on Sunday, 23 August from 1 pm to 7 pm in the museum garden (or the Glass Courtyard if the weather is bad). Participation is free. The program can be found in our events calendar.