Rapid Response Display

The “Kippah Catalyst”

The first Rapid Response display was prompted by an antisemitic incident in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin and the subsequent protest, on 25 April 2018, convened by Berlin’s Jewish Community. The motto of the rally was “Berlin Wears a Kippah.” Around 2,500 people gathered in front of the Jewish Community Center in Charlottenburg, many of them wearing a kippah as a sign of their solidarity. The display presented objects and photographs connected with this show of solidarity.

How Can I Combat Intolerance?

The Rapid Response display was a site of interaction where visitors were invited to enter into reflection and dialogue on socially relevant issues. They could leave their responses on the theme of intolerance, writing in notebooks at the exit of the museum building.

#RapidResponseCollecting

In 2014, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London announced a new collection strategy, “Rapid Response Collecting.” The Rapid Response methodology enables museums to react quickly to historic moments by collecting and exhibiting objects associated with them. The Jewish Museum Berlin will make special use of this method in its new collection domain of contemporary history.

The Contemporary History Collection

The Contemporary History collection was established in 2015 to document Jewish life in Germany from 1945 to the present. Thematically it covers the history of displaced persons in occupied Germany, the rebuilding of Jewish communities and institutions in East and West Germany, the immigration of Russian Jews to reunified Germany, and Berlin's appeal for young Israelis today. Further emphases include the complex history of German–Jewish relations after the Shoah and the portrayal of Jews and the State of Israel in various media.