Detail of a wooden ark with toy figures

Bar Mitzvah Ark

With a Wide Variety of Toy Animals, from Monkeys and Zebras to Dinosaurs to Penguins

An ark has dropped anchor at the Jewish Museum Berlin. It’s more than one meter long from bow to stern and more than one meter tall to the tip of its mast. What’s the story behind the vessel? Why are we presenting it? And what makes it so special for our museum? To answer these questions, let’s journey back in time to the Fraenkelufer Synagogue in Kreuzberg in 1990.

Map with all buildings that belong to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The W. M. Blumenthal Academy is marked in green

Where

W. M. Blumenthal Academy
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
Postal address: Lindenstraße 9-14, 10969 Berlin

Benjamin Marcus’s Bar Mitzvah

It was here that Benjamin Marcus celebrated his bar mitzvah on October 20, 1990, reading from Parashat Noah, which he had studied with his religion teacher. As the name suggests, Parashat Noah is the weekly Torah portion that tells the story of Noah’s Ark.

Footage of Benjamin Marcus reading from the Torah for the first time at his bar mitzvah; Jewish Museum Berlin, donated by Mirjam and Mario Marcus.

The Marcus Family and the Fraenkelufer Synagogue

The Marcus family has been associated with the synagogue on Fraenkelufer for generations. Various family members have celebrated their bar mitzvahs or bat mitzvahs there, and some have been married under the wedding canopy there.

Building an Ark

The bar mitzvah invitation was decorated with an illustration of an ark. But this was not all: inspired by the story, Mirjam Marcus decided to have a small ark built for the celebration. She asked the director of the Jewish Community Youth Center, Uri Faber, for help. The ark turned out to be much bigger than expected, offering plenty of room for toy animals.

(6 items)

  • In this interview the Marcus family explains how the ark was built, where the animals came from, and how the bar mitzvah was celebrated; Jewish Museum Berlin 2021, in German.

  • Wooden ark with toy animals

    The ark, which is more than one meter tall, is large enough to hold many animals; Jewish Museum Berlin, permanent loan from Mirjam and Mario Marcus, photo: Roman März.

  • Close-up of the wooden ark with toy animals; a bearded figure in a striped robe stands in the center.

    Different animals entering the ark in groups of two (and sometimes three); Jewish Museum Berlin, permanent loan from Mirjam and Mario Marcus, photo: Roman März.

  • Wooden ark with toy animals, seen from the rear

    Life rings with inscriptions in German and Hebrew are attached to the port and starboard sides; Jewish Museum Berlin, permanent loan from Mirjam and Mario Marcus, photo: Roman März.

  • Close-up of the roof of the ark with a stork’s nest, a hut, and the Israeli flag

    The ark sails under the Israeli flag; Jewish Museum Berlin, permanent loan from Mirjam and Mario Marcus, photo: Roman März.

  • Close-up of the railing with toy animals and a plaque that reads “U. Faber 1990.”

    The plaque is inscribed with the name of the builder and the year it was built; Jewish Museum Berlin, permanent loan from Mirjam and Mario Marcus, photo: Roman März.

A Celebration in the Museum

A puppet show and children playing and eating ice cream in a museum? The celebration in the rooms of the Jewish Department of the Berlin Museum was made possible by Vera Bendt, director at the time. She approached Mario Marcus after hearing he was looking for a suitable venue. She did not think the museum should limit itself to presentations of Jewish history. She wanted it to be a place for contemporary Jewish life. The ark was displayed in front of the rotunda on the upper floor of the Martin-Gropius-Bau, where the Jewish Department’s permanent exhibition had opened in 1986. This earlier institution was the precursor to today’s Jewish Museum Berlin.

(5 items)
  • White card printed in blue ink with an illustration of Noah’s Ark and a boy holding a Torah scroll.

    Invitation to Benjamin Marcus’s bar mitzvah, October 20, 1990; Jewish Museum Berlin, accession 2021/190/0, gift of Mirjam and Mario Marcus.

  • A four-story, square, palace-like structure surrounded by barren land. Apartment buildings are visible in the background.

    The celebration took place two weeks after German reunification in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, located directly at the Berlin Wall; private collection of Mirjam and Mario Marcus.

  • A boy in a dark suit and tie stands next to a toy ark made of wood. A rotunda is visible in the background.

    The bar mitzvah boy Benjamin Marcus standing next to the ark in the Martin-Gropius-Bau; private collection of Mirjam and Mario Marcus.

  • Exhibition room with a wooden ark in the center and people in the background. A boy in a suit and a man in a kippah stand next to the ark.

    The bar mitzvah boy with the builder of the ark, the religion teacher Uri Faber; private collection of Mirjam and Mario Marcus.

  • Exhibition space with five children playing next to a kind of sandbox with gravestones.

    Young guests at play next to gravestones from the medieval Jewish cemetery in Spandau; private collection of Mirjam and Mario Marcus.

Return of the Ark

After more than thirty years, the ark has returned to the rooms of the Jewish Museum Berlin. It will be permanently displayed in front of our library in the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy. It is only a stone’s throw from a much larger ark: ANOHA, the Children’s World of the Jewish Museum Berlin.

Tamar Lewinsky, collection curator

Citation recommendation:

Tamar Lewinsky (2022), Bar Mitzvah Ark. With a Wide Variety of Toy Animals, from Monkeys and Zebras to Dinosaurs to Penguins.
URL: www.jmberlin.de/en/node/8633

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