Rafael Roth Learning Center

The multimedia exhibitions explored history on the basis of biographies and events. Playing the Sansanvi’s Park computer game, children could learn about Jewish customs and the work at our museum. We introduced special objects from our collection and provided a glimpse behind the scenes of our collecting activities by sharing background information on the objects and documents. In the “Faces” film project, we presented interviews with Jews discussing their lives in Germany today.

Multimedia Storytelling: Topics in the Learning Center

Stories were the first format developed for the Learning Center when it first opened for our visitors in 2001 alongside the museum's permanent exhibition.

Extensive multimedia material, illustrated life stories, historical events, religious festivals, and recurring themes in history. At the Learning Center, visitors could deepen their knowledge about the content of the museum, watch films, read literature, and listen to audio.

The Learning Center profiled fascinating and prominent individuals such as Bertha Pappenheim, founder of the Jewish Women's League; the physicist Albert Einstein; the Berlin jazz musician Coco Schumann; and the writer Else Ury, author of the Nesthäkchen series.

“Faces” – Jewish Life in the Present: A Film Project

The "Faces" interview project consisted of film footage in which Jews discussed their lives in Germany today. Their attitudes toward religion, society, home, and family were just as varied as their lifestyles, backgrounds, and age groups.

The first selection of interviews was presented at the Kosher & Co exhibition in autumn 2009. The complete set of interviews could then be viewed at the computer workstations of the Rafael Roth Learning Center.

In the film What Does Kosher Mean for You?, interviewees described what Jewish dietary laws mean for them today, discussing rituals and traditions, family and friends, and discrimination and exclusion. They addressed the freedom that comes with foregoing certain foods, as well as the allure of the forbidden. They also touched on organic products and vegetarianism.

Members of a Berlin family discussed the weekly Shabbat and their difficulties finding kosher meat. An important topic for Jews from the former GDR and Eastern Europe is how they rediscovered Jewish traditions following the collapse of Communism in 1989. But other interviewees felt estranged from these traditions.

How can Jews develop and live a Jewish identity in a non-Jewish environment? As one interviewee, Hillel, puts it,

"The rules are suggestions… They provide a framework for experimentation."

The interviews documented the wide range of Jewish lifestyles today, all presented in a non-linear interactive film. In order to create a form that could connect all this film content, we used the Korsakow System developed by Berlin media artist Florian Thalhofer.

Sansanvi’s Park. A Multimedia Application for Children

Sansanvi’s Park was a computer game designed for elementary school students that could be played at the computer stations of the Rafael Roth Learning Center.

The children accompanied the park’s residents – Benny, Anna, Ilana, Cem, and Heinz – to different destinations on the grounds. Benny showed the youngsters what a synagogue looks like and attended a service on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. In the music tent, Cem played selected songs from his collection of records from around the world. Heinz took the children to the Jewish Museum Berlin and showed them what kinds of objects it collects. And Sansanvi, a character from Jewish mysticism, explained how to play the game.

In 2006, Sansanvi’s Park was the winner in the "Private Learning" category of Digita, the German educational media awards.