Jaarverslag 2007 - Joods Historisch Museum

Vorige pagina: Bouwteam, voorste rij v.l.n.r. Josee Ferras (GTI), Arjan van den Bliek (UNStudio), Ted de Leeuw (jhm),
Arjan Zwetsloot (GTI), Patrick Corbee (K&R), achterste rij v.l.n.r. Herman Spithoven (Scheurer), Huib Hubregtse (Scheurer),
Koos Bijmold (PRC), Koos Speksnijder (PRC), Hetty Berg (jhm), Harm Wassink (UNStudio)
Summary
For us the year 2007 was marked above all by the completion and
opening of the new jhm. The renovation and interior remodelling
were finished on 20 February, and we were able to present the
magnificent result to the public exactly 75 years after the museum’s
official opening in 1932. The final stage of renovation
centred on the fourth building in our complex, the New Synagogue,
which now houses the BankGiro Lottery Print Room,
a new auditorium and – in its historic galleries – a splendid
permanent exhibition on the history of the Jews in the Netherlands
in the twentieth century.
The renovation seems to have achieved its goal of making the
museum more accessible to a broad public, with a record number
of museum visitors in 2007: more than 134,000, as well as
1,376,442 unique visitors to the website. This success is due to
the untiring effort of the museum staff and our many external
associates, who are stakeholders in the broadest sense of the
word. In this annual report, I would like to thank all of them once
again from the bottom of my heart.
Exhibitions
The opening exhibitions, featuring work by the photographers
Robert Capa and Eva Besnyö, enjoyed unprecedented popularity
among both the public and the media. The ‘powerful melodrama’
of Sarah Bernhardt (in the words of the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad)
also drew many visitors, who were eager to explore the
actress’s life story and the many mysteries that surround it.
The exhibition Charlotte Salomon: Work in Progress offered new
insight into how this exceptional artist created her magnum opus,
Leben? oder Theater? Ein singespiel (Life? or Theatre?), one of the
highlights of the jhm collection.
Later in the year, these exhibitions were followed by Modern
Masterpieces from Moscow: Russian Jewish Artists, 1910-1940.
This project was the result of long­term cooperation with the
State Tretyakov Gallery and A.A. Bakhrushin Central National
Theatre Museum in Moscow. The display of marvellous works
by the Russian Jewish avant­garde attracted great interest and
was accompanied by a superb catalogue.
92 jaarverslag jhm 2007
Surroundings
With the renovation complete, we are doing our utmost for the
district in which we are located, in both the Jewish and the general
cultural spheres. To that end, we have established partnerships
with a range of institutions, such as the Hollandsche Schouwburg
(Dutch Theatre) and the Menasse ben Israel Institute, and we have
been organizing tours of the Portuguese Synagogue for more than
twenty years. By participating in non­profit initiatives for the
‘Groot Waterloo’ area and the ‘Plantage aan het Water’ tourist
centre, we are working on promoting Amsterdam’s second
Museum District. In cooperation with nearby cultural institutions
and the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, an institute of higher professional
education, we are trying to convince the City of Amsterdam
to turn the Mr. Visserplein into one of the city’s gems. We are also
committed to expanding the role of the existing Jewish cultural
campus in the district, so that cultural life here will continue to
expand and flourish. This initiative is inspired in part by the memory
of the district’s past residents.
Digitization
Again this year, our organization made great strides with digitization
and information technology. The Resource Centre digitized
8,000 photos, thanks to a grant from the Dutch Maror Foundation
(known by its Dutch acronym, COM). The entire historical photograph
collection, 15,000 photos that open a window onto Jewish
life in the Netherlands since 1850, is now accessible to the public
on the Internet. The museum’s large collection of documents was
also placed on the Internet in 2007.
On 23 October the Digital Monument to the Jewish Community
in the Netherlands, www.joodsmonument.nl, came under the
management of the jhm. This makes it possible to link a great
deal of the information present in the jhm with information in the
monument, so that each victim can be commemorated not just
by name, but with at least part of his or her truncated life story.
Children’s Museum
This was also the first full year for the new Children’s Museum,
which opened in December 2006. The Hollander family and Max
summary 93