Anniversary Party with Free Admission

The Birthday Party

Where: Glass Courtyard on ground level

10 am to 2 pm: Family Brunch

Kofler & Kompanie, the new restaurant operator at the Jewish Museum Berlin, introduces itself with a diverse brunch buffet.

10.30 am: Iris Romen and Her Almost Forgotten Dreams

Vintage jazz, country, blues, and rumba are important ingredients in Iris Romen’s self-composed songs. But in her refreshingly natural and almost dreamy way, the Dutch-born artist also mixes chanson, swing, and hits into her lively anniversary program.

12.30 pm: The Children’s Dance Company of Sasha Waltz & Guests

The dance company of 9 to 14 year olds directed by the dancer and choreographer Gabriel Galindez Cruz has created a new program with a duet and several solo performances for the anniversary that sees its premiere today.

3 pm: Birthday Cake and the Rathaus Ramblers

Cilly Kugelmann, program director at the Jewish Museum Berlin, and Michael Naumann, who has a long-standing connection to the museum and is chair of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin, cut the birthday cake from Cynthia Barcomi. And the Rathaus Ramblers play Hot New Orleans Jazz.

Children’s Program on Public Day

Where: Education room on 1st level of Old Building

11 am: "A Flat for Rent" - דירה להשכיר

Reading of the children’s classic by Lea Goldberg with the translator Mirjam Pressler in Hebrew and German for children from 3 to 7

"A Flat for Rent" is a parable of the peaceful and respectful coexistence of different cultures. Hen, cuckoo, cat, and squirrel all live together in a rented house and are looking for a suitable new tenant for mouse’s space. Which lucky animal will live in the sought-after apartment – the pig, the rabbit, or the dove?

The cultural attaché of the Israeli Embassy, Ran Jacoby, will offer words of welcome.

Midday to 6 pm: Creative Birthday Workshop

Children can experiment with colors and fabrics, write their name in Hebrew, and leave their birthday wishes. Colors and stencils are ready to use.

2 pm and 4 pm: Where Should the Right Angle go?

Architectural tour for families with the Helmi marionette ensemble

Suddenly there is a shaking and a rattling and out pops the right angle. From then on, nothing is ever the same again – the walls are at a slant, the windows slits, and the rooms empty. No room for the right angle? Perhaps the slant can help.

Bookings on the day up to 30 mins beforehand or on tel. +49 (0)30 25 993 305

Meeting point: tours desk in the foyer of the Old Building

4 pm: Alis wunderbarer Weg – Ali‘nin gizemli yolu (Ali’s wonderful path)

Reading with the author and illustrator Shlomit Baris Tulgan in Turkish and German for children from 5 to 9 years

Ali is desperate because he cannot read. In asking God for help, he begins on his wonderful path of searching for God. The reading is enhanced by wonderful illustrations. In the brief tour through the permanent exhibition that follows, the children discover the very different ways that people try to make contact with God.

Tours on Public Day

Meeting point: tours desk in the foyer of the Old Building

Bookings on the day up to 30 mins beforehand or on tel. +49 (0)30 25993 305

11 am to 5.30 pm, every half hour: Objects and Their Stories

The museum close up: The curators from the collections – art, Judaica and the applied arts, everyday stories, photography – and colleagues from the archive, restoration, and library present various objects. For example the curator for Judaica Michal Friedlander asks “Are they Judaica? Stars of David and other misunderstandings,” Barbara Decker tells in “ArtRight: Safeguarding objects for the future” of her work as a conservator, and the library flies to Jerusalem with Benni.

All Day Long: Favorites

11.45 am

Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin on old and new ceremonial objects taking the example of the spice box

Kai Pflaume (TV presenter) on the legendary entertainer Hans Rosenthal and the revival of "Dalli, Dalli"

Marcel Reif (sports commentator) on the link between religion and sport in Jewish youth work of the 1920s

Wolfgang Thierse (member of the German Bundestag, SPD, vice-president of the German Bundestag) on the New Synagogue in his home town of Breslau

1.45 pm

Sergey Lagodinsky (lawyer and journalist) on Jewish identity in Germany after 1945

Michael Naumann (editor-in-chief, Cicero) on the Blumenthal family from Berlin and their escape

Petra Pau (member of the German Bundestag, German left-wing political party "Die Linke," vice-president of the German Bundestag) on growing up in the Third Reich

3.45 pm

André Herzberg (singer of the band Pankow) on his mother’s life as a Jew in the GDR

Renate Künast (member of the German Bundestag, chair of the German Green Party) on children’s transports to England and the story of Lore Gutwillig

Andreas Nachama (director of the Topography of Terror Foundation and rabbi) on hand washing before the priestly blessing

Marie Warburg (doctor and chair of the Human Rights Watch Berlin committee) on civic life in the 19th century

4.45 pm

Peter Bartsch (fish curator at the Natural History Museum) on specimens preserved by the eminent fish researcher Marcus Élieser Bloch

Harvey Friedman (film and theater actor) on the stagecraft of the theater reviver Max Reinhardt

Gregor Gysi (member of the German Bundestag, chair of the Bundestag faction of the German left-wing political party "Die Linke") on the radical thinkers Karl Marx and Ferdinand Lassalle

Midday + 2 pm + 5 m: Immigration Country Germany (in German and English)

This tour through the anniversary exhibition "How German is it? 30 Artists’ Notion of Home" presents the artists and their works and encourages – in the light of current debate – in-depth (re)consideration of the themes integration, migration, and national identity. The tour is available in German and English.

12.30 pm and 3.30 pm: JMB Underground

This discovery tour behind the scenes at the museum with the facilities manager Gunther Giese leads to the museum’s hidden spots and secret passages. He explains the necessity of all the technical equipment – tucked away deep inside the museum – that goes otherwise unnoticed.

11 am + 1 pm: Tour of the Building Site of the New Jewish Museum Berlin Academy

Armed with building-site helmets, the tour takes visitors around the building site of the future academy. Architecture fans learn the secrets of the old central flower market hall, what it means to build a house-in-house, and how the new Libeskind building is slowly but surely taking on its spectacular form.

4 pm: City Tour "Under the Open Sky"

In search of traces of Jewish life in Friedrichstadt, the tour focuses on the rise to bourgeois society and the considerable contribution of the Jewish population to Berlin becoming a financial and cultural metropolis. Multimedia guides show what can no longer be seen.

The "Anniversary Couch"

The "Anniversary Couch" is a meeting point for all those who would like to learn more about the JMB’s work and personalities – and what is important to them. This is where the museum’s curators converse with contemporary witnesses, artists, experts, and visitors.

4 pm Contemporary Witnesses in Conversation: Peter and George Summerfield and Aubrey Pomerance on the flight and fortune of a pair of twins

Where: Rafael Roth Learning Center, lower level of Libeskind Building

5 pm Contemporary Witnesses in Conversation: Anita Lasker Wallfisch and Werner Kilian on bearing witness and the quest for justice

Where: Rafael Roth Learning Center, lower level of Libeskind Building

6 pm Artists in Conversation: Julian Rosefeldt and Margret Kampmeyer on the German forest

Where: In the special exhibition "How German is it?", 1st level of Old Building