The number of Jewish museums located in Europe has grown so rapidly in recent years that assisting the new institutions with practical advice has become an important task.
As a result, 30 curators of European Jewish museums met here recently for a three-day exchange of views and practical experience.
Representatives from Israel and the United States joined European colleagues here in Vienna, where a new Jewish museum opened just six months ago.
Professor Julius Schoeps, director of the new Viennese Jewish Museum, also hosted curators from such cities as Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris, Prague and Athens.
Although the conference was initially called to discuss the “problems of transmitting history,” its focus shifted because of urgent problems facing curators from former Communist states.
Attendees representing museums located in former Communist states face the dual problem of finding confiscated Jewish treasures and of determining legal methods for regaining these artifacts.
The curators from England and Switzerland advised their Eastern European colleagues to leave the artifacts under government control. But the curators from Amsterdam and New York disagreed.
“Europe has had bad experiences with art being in the hands of political powers,” said Joan Rosenbaum of the Jewish Museum in New York.
“I think we should support you politically, morally and financially so that you get a more self-confident status,” she said.
Another problem facing some of the newly opened museums is a lack of funds.
Alexander Kemeny, curator of a museum in the Slovak capital of Bratislava, said the museum is currently housed in a five-room apartment.
“We don’t know if there will be any money in the near future to expand into a real museum,” he said.
“There are no more than 1,000 Jews living in Bratislava today, compared to more than 15,000 before World War II. Most of our visitors are tourists to the city,” he said.
Edward van Voolen, curator of the Amsterdam Jewish Museum, called for the establishment of a board that would extend practical assistance to the new museums and also coordinate international efforts.
He suggested the board meet in Vienna because of its central location and number of experts on Eastern Europe located here.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
