20 Years, 21 Objects

A Special Exhibit from each year between 2001 and 2021

Ever since the museum opened in September 2001 its collection has been steadily growing through gifts and acquisitions. On the occasion of our 20th anniversary, starting in September 2021 we will be presenting two objects each week from all of the areas of the collection – a special exhibit from each year between 2001 and 2021: A Havdalah besamim set by the gold- and silversmith Paula Newman Pollachek; a student identification card from the last years of Berlin's College for the Science of Judaism; photographer Ilse Bing's first self-portrait; a practical cookbook for Jewish cuisine; a traditional blouse from the Hahn family; a drawing by Else Lasker-Schüler; a cap from the Jewish Carnival association in Cologne, and many more. Discover these and other objects that have never been shown to the public.

“The architect’s way of thinking is through the eyes.”

Zvi Hecker, Jewish Primary School Berlin: design drawing “Rainwater Collection,” Berlin, 1993, purchased in 2001
How to Create Community with Spice Boxes

Paula Newman Pollachek, Havdalah Besamim Set, Oakland (California), purchase, 2002
An Important Moment for the Zwilsky Family

Rededication of the Jewish Hospital Synagogue, Berlin, 3 June 1946, gift of Klaus M. Zwilsky, 2003
Rabbinical Studies in the Capital of Nazi Germany

Identification card for Wolfgang Hamburger, College for the Science of Judaism, Berlin, 1939–1942, gift of Wolfgang Hamburger, 2004
Artworks for Children

Tom Seidmann-Freud, Eser sihot li-yeladim (Kleine Märchen, Eng: Little Fairy Tales), Jerusalem 1923, purchased in 2005
On the Way to a Poetic-Political Utopia

Else Lasker-Schüler, Durch die Wüste Sinai (Through the Desert of Sinai), about 1935, purchase, 2006
A Testament to Trade Relationships between Jews and Non-Jews in the Eighteenth Century

Der vollkommene Pferdekenner (The Complete Horse Connoisseur), Uffenheim 1764, purchased in 2007
“... there is, however, a definite want of a good Jewish cookbook.”

Complete Practical Cookbook for the Jewish Kitchen, by Bertha Gumprich, née Meyer. Fourth edition, significantly expanded and improved, Trier, about 1900, gift of Herbert and Elisabeth Simon, 2008
An Anonymous Letter

Documents and jewelry from the estate of Alice (1879–1943) and Georg (1874–1942) Dorpalen, anonymous donation, 2009
“Well-balanced silver utilitarian objects that make you feel good”

Emmy Roth, Tea and Coffee Service, 1931, purchased in 2010
A Solomonic Judgment

Key ring from the house owned by the Ziegler family in Velten, ca. 1990, donated by Ruth Ziegler, 2011
Laissez-passer

Grande Armée Curfew Pass for Maurice Bouchard, Berlin, 1808, gift of Dr. Walter Borchardt-Ott and Ruth Jarecki (née Borchardt-Ott), 2012
A Concert in the Cabin

Concert announcement, Onchan Internment Camp, Isle of Man, 1941, gift of Ms. Anne Marx in loving memory of her husband Carl Theodore, 2013
Testimonial to a Family

Torah shield (Tas) and box, Kitzingen, 1711/12, purchased in 2014
“Ma première photo”

Ilse Bing, Self-portrait, Frankfurt am Main, 1913, purchased in 2015
A Mirror with Memory

Daguerreotype of Pauline Stern, Breslau, 1849, gift of Dr. phil. Fortunatus Schnyder-Rubensohn, 2016
Making the Invisible Visible

Samson II by Ernest Neuschul, 1923–1955, purchase in 2017
A Persian Bar Mitzvah in Hamburg

Video recording of Rabin Yaghoubi’s bar mitzvah, 1984, gift of Rabin Yaghoubi, 2018
Collecting the Present

Krätzchen Carnival Cap (Kölsche Kippa Köpp Carnival Society), gift of Aaron Knappstein, 2019
First Family Selft-portrait during Passover

Hanna’s first seder during Covid-19, submission to the “Passover in Times of Corona” call for collection items, 2020
“The museum is a storehouse of memories”

Embroidered traditional blouses, ca. 1920–1930, gift of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, 2021