Friends of the Museum
Find out how you can support the museum
Educational programs for children and young people, new objects for the collections or the next exhibition – the FRIENDS OF THE JMB support all aspects of the museum.
As a member of the FRIENDS OF THE JMB, you provide the museum with extra scope for action and make it possible to offer a varied program. With your membership, you can point the way to coexistence in diversity, take a stand against antisemitism, and contribute to ensuring that varied Jewish perspectives are visible in society.
Friendship with Impact
Over more than 20 years, the FRIENDS have been able to support many different JMB projects: for children, young people, families, teachers, and professional audiences; from small workshops to event series, from the purchase of individual photographs to large exhibitions.
Selected Projects
JMB on.tour
Since September 2022, the Jewish Museum Berlin has been traveling throughout Germany with a new mobile exhibition entitled on.tour! Topics and content from the new core exhibition are organized into three learning units. Students get to discuss the material and explore how it relates to their own lives. JMB on.tour brings the Jewish Museum Berlin to schools that are unable to visit the museum in Berlin. The redesign of the exhibition was made possible by Friends of the JMB.
ANOHA
The story of Noah’s ark from the Torah takes center stage at the children’s museum. According to tradition, the ark was an enormous boat that Noah used to save his family and all of the animal species from the flood. More than 150 animals are gathered in the heart of the ANOHA children’s world – a gigantic round ark made of wood, designed by the American firm Olson Kundig Architecture and Design.
The FRIENDS OF THE JMB are also ANOHA FRiENDS. The FRIENDS OF THE JMB have supported the children's world since the very first plans and ensure that the animals on the ark are also among friends.
The Lotte Kaliski Room
In the middle of the Libeskind building, the Lotte Kaliski Room offers a protected retreat. It was specially designed for and by neurodiverse people to engage with the exhibition themes and museum architecture away from the hustle and bustle and is available to all visitors to the JMB to pause, exchange ideas and reflect.
In founding the Private Forest School Kaliski, the school's namesake followed a special educational concept: outdoor lessons, lots of exercise and small classes for individual support. Lotte Kaliski herself was often ostracized due to her physical disability. In 1939, her school had to close by order of the Nazi regime.
One of her pupils was JMB founding director W. Michael Blumenthal:
The three years I spent at the Kaliski School were undoubtedly the most important, most satisfying and most profound educational experience of my life.
The Lotte Kaliski Room was made possible by the support of the FRIENDS OF THE JMB.
Tumtum by Gil Yefman
Tumtum, Gil Yefman’s eye-catching installation in the JMB’s Glass Courtyard, is part of the exhibition Sex: Jewish Positions. The rabbis of antiquity went beyond the male-female binary and defined multiple gender identity categories. They used the Hebrew term tumtum for individuals whose hidden or ambiguous sexual organs defied classification. The idea of ambiguity inspired Israeli artist Gil Yefman to create this colorful installation.
The lavish production of this work was made possible by support of the Friends of the JMB.
Scenes from the Babylonian Talmud by Noa Snir, Berlin, 2024
This series by Berlin-based Israeli artist Noa Snir is a unique highlight among the many contemporary artistic works in the exhibition Sex: Jewish Positions. In it, the artist illustrates ten sexually explicit scenes from the Babylonian Talmud. She highlights how early rabbis were far from prudish and discussed all sorts of questions relating to sexual morals, demonstrating a broad range of perspectives.
The commissioned work and its purchase for the museum collection were made possible by the Friends of the JMB.
Purchase of the sculpture Henriette by Marion Kahnemann from the exhibition Another Country: Jewish in the GDR
Henriette Schmager, a member of Dresden’s Jewish community, celebrated her 90th birthday in the mid 1980s. “Henriette was a simple innkeeper. Her family survived the Shoah by hiding on a small ship near Potsdam. Her 90th birthday coincided with Erich Honecker’s attempt to improve relations with the US, and since he needed a positive representation of Jewish life in the GDR, her birthday was declared a state occasion and celebrated in the city’s best hotel. GDR TV was on-site to capture the event, which it broadcast on its news channel, 'Aktuelle Kamera'. I remember Henriette standing in the hotel vestibule, looking forlorn and overwhelmed among all the officials. She was wearing a bright blue dress with a large Star of David,” the artist, born in 1960, recalls.
The purchase of this work was made possible by the Friends of the JMB.
from me to we by Leon Kahane
The artist’s work deals with utopia and the culture of remembrance, with enemy images of the GDR and self-images in an interplay with the biography of his grandparents and their descendants.
The mixed media installation from me to we by Leon Kahane was specially commissioned for the exhibition Another Country. Jewish in the GDR. The commissioned work and its purchase for the museum collection were made possible by the Friends of the JMB.
Cultural Program
Have you always wanted to get a deeper insight into the work of the Jewish Museum Berlin? Together, the FRIENDS take a look behind the scenes of the next exhibition, look into the depot of the collections or discover the highlights of the museum through the eyes of the curators and there are always new adventures to experience for families with children.
Experience the Cultural Program
Become a FRIEND
As a Friend, you provide the museum with ongoing, sustainable support; it is an investment in the future of the JMB. Together with other FRIENDS, you can explore new and old facets of German-Jewish coexistence and experience the JMB up close.
Family offer ANOHA FRiENDS
With your membership of ANOHA FRiENDS - the family offer of the FRIENDS OF THE JMB - you support the valuable work of ANOHA and enable families and children to encounter important social issues such as nature conservation, inclusion and togetherness.
You can find more information about ANOHA FRiENDS here anoha.de/en/friends
Donate to the JMB
Support the museum with your donation. This helps implement projects and exhibitions and enables collection acquisitions, restorations, and the further development of educational programs. All donations received flow directly and exclusively into the JMB's programs, in line with the purpose of the association. Every contribution, large or small, regular or one-time, counts and enables the FRIENDS to continue to support the museum into the future.
Become a corporate member
Companies and company-linked foundations can become part of the FRIENDS OF THE JMB, too. With a membership they support the work of the museum on a larger scale and set a clear sign for tolerance and respect.
Sybille Svoboda and Maxim Ehrlich, FRIENDS OF THE JMB since 2010
About the FRIENDS
The legal name is the Gesellschaft der Freunde und Förderer der Stiftung Jüdisches Museum Berlin e.V., but we call it the FRIENDS OF THE JMB for short – either way, it has supported the Jewish Museum Berlin since it was established more than 20 years ago. Among themselves, the FRIENDS form an active network from which new encounters, ideas and perspectives have grown. Together, they campaign for tolerant coexistence and social cohesion.
The FRIENDS back the JMB in many ways – financially, spiritually, and with helping hands. They stand by the institution’s side and offer support where it is needed. They are there – just like friends are there for each other. In this way, the FRIENDS promote the museum's mission of clearly demonstrating the values of an open and tolerant society.
FRIENDS achieve more together
Membership fees and donations from FRIENDS give the museum greater scope for action
- They strengthen the strategic goal of establishing the museum as a central platform for Jewish culture in Germany in the digital space.
- They support wide-ranging educational work, in particular for children and young people.
- They enable exciting temporary exhibitions, a new core exhibition and even new buildings, such as the Academy and the ANOHA Children's World.
- They finance the purchase of artworks, objects and photographs from Jewish everyday culture and religious practice. With the acquisitions fund for contemporary art, the FRIENDS strengthen current artistic positions.
- They help develop a rich and varied events program.
- They support the task of preserving and researching the holdings, and making them accessible to the public.
In doing all this, the association exclusively and directly pursues charitable purposes. This means that membership fees and all additional donations are tax deductible.
Members of the board
- Prof. Dr. W. Michael Blumenthal (Honorary Chairperson)
- Dr. Walter Kuna (Chairperson)
- Prof. Dr. Klaus Mangold (Vice-chairperson)
- Burkhard Ischler (Treasurer)
- Hetty Berg
- Dr. Sabine Böhm
- Dr. Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller
- Cedrik Neike
- Julian Teicke
Walter Kuna, Association Chairperson
Contact
FRIENDS OF THE JMB
T +49 (0)30 259 93 436
freunde@jmberlin.de
Johanna Brandt
Managing Director FRIENDS OF THE JMB
T +49 (0)30 259 93 553
j.brandt@jmberlin.de
Stella Di Leo
Marketing and Fundraising
T +49 (0)30 25993-317
s.dileo@jmberlin.de
Do you want to get involved? Then let's become FRIENDS!
- Current page: FRIENDS OF THE JMB: Overview of the friends’ association of the Jewish Museum Berlin
- Become a Member: Experience the JMB up close with FRIENDS
- Donate: Support important projects with your donation
- Cultural Program: Experience the JMB up close with FRIENDS
- Corporate Membership: Advocate for an open society by supporting the JMB
- Prize for Understanding and Tolerance: Every year, the JMB and the FRIENDS honor exceptional individuals for their engagement
- See also
- Support: Other ways to help the JMB