From September 2022, the Jewish Museum Berlin will be taking a new mobile exhibition on.tour all across Germany! In three study periods, it will communicate themes and contents from the new permanent collection, which students can discuss and relate to their own lives. With on.tour, the Jewish Museum Berlin comes to schools that are not able to visit the Museum in Berlin. In the pilot phase in 2022, JMB on.tour will head for schools in Berlin and Brandenburg. From 2023, the on.tour bus will travel all over the country.
The outreach programs from the Jewish Museum Berlin first started bringing German-Jewish culture, history and contemporary life to teenagers and young adults in 2007. From 2007 to 2017, it reached 75,000 young people in almost 600 schools in 16 states as well as in a juvenile detention center – now you can take part, too!
Trailer to the mobile exhibition JMB on.tour; Jewish Museum Berlin 2023
JMB on.tour at a glance
- Mobile exhibition that comes to schools in the on.tour bus
- Two workshops of three school periods each, with two facilitators
- Students discuss the diversity of Jewish culture, religion, history and present
- Target group: young people from twelve years of age
- Free of charge and inclusive
An on.tour day in pictures
The on.tour bus is bringing the exhibition to teenagers and young adults; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
The students help unload and set up the exhibition; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
Participants approach the topics in a playful way using a parachute; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
All the exhibits can be handled individually; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
What is a Jewish object? What does the Jewish Museum Berlin collect? And why?; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
JMB on.tour uses various materials, such as multi-sensory hands-on objects, biographies, documents and photographs, as well as videos, audio material and displays with explanatory texts; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
What do kosher gummy bears taste like? Young people can taste this exhibit for themselves; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
The facilitators supervise the participants and answer questions about Judaism and being Jewish in the past and present; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
With several tablets and a large monitor, JMB on.tour also shows digital exhibits, like one of the Four Questions films by Yael Reuveny; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
In the discussion group, all the young people’s questions can again be linked to the exhibition’s themes and discussed in the context of their lives; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
The on.tour bus is bringing the exhibition to teenagers and young adults; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
Participants approach the topics in a playful way using a parachute; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
What is a Jewish object? What does the Jewish Museum Berlin collect? And why?; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
JMB on.tour uses various materials, such as multi-sensory hands-on objects, biographies, documents and photographs, as well as videos, audio material and displays with explanatory texts; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
What do kosher gummy bears taste like? Young people can taste this exhibit for themselves; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
The facilitators supervise the participants and answer questions about Judaism and being Jewish in the past and present; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
With several tablets and a large monitor, JMB on.tour also shows digital exhibits, like one of the Four Questions films by Yael Reuveny; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Yves Sucksdorff.
What is JMB on.tour about?
The mobile exhibition conveys information on Jewish-German history, culture and the present: the Torah and the Talmud, dietary laws, kashrut, the Sabbath rest day, Jewish places, the significance of migration stories for contemporary Jewish life in Germany, as well as Jewish perspectives on the Holocaust and forms of remembrance. At its core is the self-directed exploration of around forty hands-on exhibits: What does a broken piece of glass, a packet of Fromms condoms or a soccer jersey have to do with Judaism? In discussions with the on.tour facilitators, other questions tie in with the young people’s own lives: How do you watch what you eat? Is there anything you don’t eat on principle? What do you want to free yourself from? Which languages do you switch between? The discussion also addresses the museum itself: What is a Jewish object, anyway? What does the Jewish Museum Berlin collect? And what would you donate to a museum?
The facilitators respond to the individual needs and interests of each group and adapt the contents to the group’s prior knowledge and syllabus.
Where is JMB on.tour going?
In the pilot phase in 2022, JMB on.tour will head to schools in Berlin and Brandenburg over 20 days. From 2023, the on.tour bus will travel all over Germany.
How do I get JMB on.tour to come to my school?
If you are interested in a visit, please email at ontour@jmberlin.de to tell us your preferred time frame and for which grade you are inquiring. Please plan for three study periods for each of two classes.
How inclusive is JMB on.tour?
In JMB on.tour, participants explore more than forty exhibits, which they can touch, look at, listen to and even taste and smell. There are also diverse biographies, photos, documents, quotations and in-depth explanatory texts. All the texts are written in plain language and are designed with tactile QR codes for use with screen readers. The trained facilitators can cater the exhibition to participants with hearing, visual, physical or intellectual disabilities or limitations.
How was JMB on.tour developed?
Various advisory boards were involved in the development of JMB on.tour.
In the school advisory board, students from two Berlin schools tested the prototypes and provided valuable feedback. The Biesalski School in Dahlem focuses on the special educational needs of people with physical and motor development and autism. The Refik-Veseli School is an integrated secondary school in Kreuzberg.
In the inclusion advisory board, experts from the Allgemeiner Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverein Berlin (Union for the Blind and Visually Impaired) and the Humboldt University Berlin’s Department of Rehabilitation Sciences supported JMB on.tour with their knowledge.
The editorial team of the newspaper Ohrenkuss checked the texts for comprehensibility, and, together with the expert Anne Leichtfuss, translated them into plain language.
With funding provided by
With the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
