Jewish Museum of Florence

Last updated

Entrance inscription, Jewish Museum of Florence Florence-Synagogue-Firenze-jessewaugh.com-22.jpg
Entrance inscription, Jewish Museum of Florence

The Jewish Museum of Florence (Italian : Museo Ebraico di Firenze) is a museum of Jewish history located in the Great Synagogue of Florence, Italy. [1] The museum, which covers two spaces of the building, gathers an important collection of ancient objects of Jewish ceremonial art, [2] evidence of the high artistic level achieved by the Jewish-Italian communities in the field of applied arts. Exhibitions illustrate the history of Florentine Jews from the first settlements to the post-war reconstruction, featuring old photographs, films and a large number of objects of daily and commemorative use. [3]

Contents

Descripción

The Great Synagogue of Florence Synagogue of Florence-2.jpg
The Great Synagogue of Florence

The Jewish Museum occupies two spaces in two separate floors of the Great Synagogue. [4] [5] The first opened on the first floor in 1981 (thus considered the year the museum opened) as a community initiative called "Friends of the Jewish Museum of Florence", [5] with exhibits offering a historical overview of the Jewish community of Florence and its relations with the city. A photo collection documents the main sites of Jewish congregation in Florence with replicas of the Buonsignori Map and of the ancient ghetto, among others. It also includes a collection of old furniture and ritual objects which were used during religious services, as well as pieces of textiles and jewellery dating from the 16th century to the early 18th century. [4]

The second floor opened after the museum's expansion in 2007, and contains objects and furniture related to the most significant events in Jewish life, family rituals, and religious festivities. [2] There is also a space dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust, with images projected on the back wall. All spaces lead to a computer area, where visitors can connect with other museums and Jewish centres around the world for research purposes.

Museum guides accompany visitors through the complex, providing them with information, insights and anecdotes about local Jewish culture and heritage. Exiting the museum, visitors can access the museum store or rest in the garden area. [3]

Events

Open House

Every September, the Great Synagogue, and therefore the Jewish Museum, celebrates the Open House Day, open to the public as part of the European Day of Jewish Culture. [1] In 2010, the Open House attracted more than 60.000 visitors, [1] showcasing masterpieces of Jewish artists, and allowing access to parts of the building normally closed to the public.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Livorno</span> Port city in Italy

Livorno is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israel Museum</span> National museum of Israel in Jerusalem

The Israel Museum is an art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading encyclopaedic museums. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, adjacent to the Bible Lands Museum, the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museo Galileo</span> Museum in Florence, Italy

Museo Galileo is located in Florence, Italy, in Piazza dei Giudici, along the River Arno and close to the Uffizi Gallery. The museum, dedicated to astronomer and scientist Galileo Galilei, is housed in Palazzo Castellani, an 11th-century building which was then known as the Castello d'Altafronte.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museo Nazionale di San Marco</span> Art museum, historic site in Florence, Italy

Museo Nazionale di San Marco is an art museum housed in the monumental section of the medieval Dominican convent of San Marco dedicated to St Mark, situated on the present-day Piazza San Marco, in Florence, a region of Tuscany, Italy.

David Castelli was an Italian scholar and educator in the field of secular Jewish studies. He was educated at the rabbinical college of Leghorn, and from 1857 to 1863 was teacher of Hebrew and Italian in the Jewish schools of that city. Then he became secretary of the Jewish congregation in Pisa, where at the same time he was a private teacher. From January 1876 until his death he occupied the chair of Hebrew at the Istituto di Studi Superiori Pratici e di Perfezionamento in Florence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki</span> Museum in Greece

The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki is a museum in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece. It displays the history of Sephardic Jews and Jewish life in Thessaloniki. The museum is being run by the Jewish community of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme</span> Jewish museum, Art museum, History museum, Historic site in rue du Temple Paris

The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme or mahJ is the largest French museum of Jewish art and history. It is located in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan in the Marais district in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Synagogue of Florence</span> Orthodox synagogue in Florence, Italy

The Great Synagogue of Florence is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, that is located at Via Luigi Carlo Farini 4, in Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. Designed in the Italian and Moorish Revival styles, the synagogue was completed in 1882.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synagogue of Casale Monferrato</span> Synagogue in Casale Monferrato, Italy

The Synagogue of Casale Monferrato is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at Vicolo Salomone Olper 44, in the Jewish quarter of Casale Monferrato, Province of Alessandria, in the region of Piedmont, Italy. Built in the Piedmontese Baroque and Mannerist styles, the synagogue was completed in 1595.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Museum Vienna</span> Museum of Jewish history, life and religion in Austria

The Jüdisches Museum Wien, trading as Jüdisches Museum der Stadt Wien GmbH or the Jewish Museum Vienna, is a museum of Jewish history, life and religion in Austria. The museum is present on two locations, in the Palais Eskeles in the Dorotheergasse and in the Judenplatz, and has distinguished itself by a very active programme of exhibitions and outreach events highlighting the past and present of Jewish culture in Austria. The current director is Barbara Staudinger and the chief curator is Astrid Peterle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Jews in Florence</span>

The history of the Jews in Florence can be traced over nine hundred years. Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. The Jews of Florence have one of the oldest continuous Jewish communities in Europe. The historic Jewish community in Florence is one of the largest and one of the most influential Jewish communities in Italy. The Jewish community in Florence also serves the smaller neighboring Jewish communities in Pisa, Livorno, and Siena.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Florence, Tuscany, Italy.

The Jewish Museum “Carlo and Vera Wagner", is located in via del Monte 5/7, Trieste, Italy. It was inaugurated in 1993, by the initiative of Mario Stock together with the generous support of the Wagner-de Polo family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Museum of Rome</span> Museum in the basement of Romes synagogue

The Jewish Museum of Rome is situated in the basement of the Great Synagogue of Rome and offers both information on the Jewish presence in Rome since the second century BCE and a large collection of works of art produced by the Jewish community. A visit to the museum includes a guided tour of the Great Synagogue and of the smaller Spanish Synagogue in the same complex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reale Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale</span> Scientific museum in Florence, Italy

The Reale Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale was an Italian museum founded on 22 February 1775 in Florence that survived until 1878, when its collections were split up in various Florentine museums.

The Jewish monumental cemetery in Florence is a monumental cemetery on the current Ariosto avenue, just outside the ancient Renaissance walls, as it was not allowed to bury Jews in the city. It is open once a month, only on last Sundays, with two guided tours in the morning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palace of the Forgotten</span>

The Palace of the Forgotten is a museum in Granada, Spain, dedicated to the Spanish Inquisition, Jewish history, and Granada's and Andalusia's heritage. The building is located in the Albaicín, a neighbourhood declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994 as an extension of the monumental complex of the Alhambra and the Generalife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Museum of Venice</span> Museum of the Jewish community in Venice

The Jewish Museum of Venice is a museum focusing on the history of Jews in the city of Venice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art</span> Art museum in Jerusalem, Israel

The Umberto Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art is a museum dedicated to preserving the heritage, art and culture of the Jews of Italy, located in Jerusalem, Israel. The museum houses cultural and spiritual treasures of Italian Jewry, from the Renaissance to the present day.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Open House at the Synagogue". Tuscan Traveler’s Tales. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Sinagoga e Cimitero ebraico di Pisa - Firenze, Pisa, Siena". www.coopculture.it (in Italian). Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  3. 1 2 "Synagogue of Florence and Museum of Hebraic art and culture - Florence". Museums in Florence. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Museum". Comunità ebraica di Firenze. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Jewish Museum of Florence". My Jewish Italy. Retrieved June 30, 2021.

43°46′24″N11°15′57″E / 43.77322°N 11.26573°E / 43.77322; 11.26573