Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Exploring the Israel Museum
Thanks to its wide variety of sources, the
collection is extraordinarily eclectic. Its core
was inherited from the Bezalel School and
Museum (Israel's first arts academy) and the
Israel Department of Antiquities, and this
has been supplemented by gifts, loans and
acquisitions from around the globe. The big-
gest draw, though, for most visitors is the Shrine of the
Book, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls
(see pp136-7).
Byzantine-era
oil lamp
Elaborate silverwork on display
includes
hadassim
(spiceboxes
used during the ceremony of
separation between the Sab-
bath and the start of the week)
and the
rimonim
(pomegran-
ates that decorate Torah scrolls
in the synagogue). Another
highlight is the large collection
of
Hannukkiot
- the oil lamps
JUDAICA AND JEWISH
ETHNOGRAPHY
Jewish culture is represented
by two separate sections.
The Judaica section, one of the
largest of its kind in the world,
displays objects connected with
Jewish religious practice
(see
pp22-3)
. It spans
the period from
the Middle Ages
to the present,
and has exhibits
from as far afield
as Spain and
China. Among
the most pre-
cious objects are the medieval
illuminated manuscripts. These
include a 14th-century German
Haggadah
(the story read at
Passover of the Israelites'
liberation from Egypt) and the
Rothschild Miscellany, a 15th-
century collection of biblical,
legal and other pieces.
Jeanne Hebuterne, Seated
(1918),
d
by Amedeo Modigliani
ART COLLECTIONS
t
that are lit for
Hanukkah
(see
p39)
. There are
also three beau-
tiful, complete
synagogue
interiors, from
Italy, Germany
and India.
The ethnographic section cov-
ers the culture and daily life of
various Jewish communities
around the world. It exhibits
textiles, clothing, jewellery,
reconstructions of rooms and
ritual articles connected with
life events such as birth,
circumcision and marriage.
The museum's various art
collections cover a wide
range of periods and artistic
disciplines. In consecutive
rooms visitors can take in
Chinese porcelain, African
figurines, Impressionist master-
pieces and even an entire
18th-century French salon.
Rooms on the lower level
house the modern art collec-
tion, which has international
works from the 1890s to the
1960s. These include paintings
by figures such as Gauguin,
Cézanne, Chagall, Matisse and
Modigliani. Twentieth-century
sculpture is also represented,
The Rothschild Miscellany
The Rothschild Room, an 18th-century Parisian salon donated by Baron Edmond de Rothschild
For hotels and restaurants in this area see p258 and p274
