Jewish Museum of Greece [Museum Profile]

Where: 39 Nikis St, Athens

In a few words:
Established in 1977, the Jewish Museum of Greece is committed to researching, studying and preserving the culture of Greek Jews, its vast collection testifying to more than 23 centuries of Jewish presence in Greece.
 

 

Why:
Housing objects pre-dating WWII, salvaged from surviving Greek (Romaniote and Sephardi) Jewish families, the Jewish Museum’s collection includes artefacts, documents and manuscripts  testifying to more than 23 centuries of Jewish presence in Greece.

 

 

What you will see:
Besides a few objects which had collected immediately after WWII, the core of the museum’s initial collection was made up of jewellery of the Jews of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace that had been seized by the Bulgarians in 1943 and returned after the war.
This core material kept multiplying, mainly through the donations of individuals and communities, initially from the area of Thessaly, the island of Rhodes and the city of Ioannina.
Besides rare 17th – 19th century books and publications, a significant number of ritual textiles were assembled, dating from the Ottoman times (14th-19th centuries), and they soon became one of the museum’s main attractions for both visitors and researchers.

The museum’s artifacts have been classified in the below categories:

• Ritual objects
• Domestic and personal items
• Holocaust artifacts
• Documents
• Information material

The museum also hosts thematic annual temporary exhibitions which bring to light artifacts from its vast collection. Some recent temporary exhibitions included:

• The Jewish Community of Ioannina – The Memory of Artefacts
  and Joseph Eligia, the Poet of the Lake
  January – September 2017
• Hidden Children in Occupied Greece
  January – September 2016
• Synagonistis: Greek Jews in the National Resistance
  April 2013 – April 2014
• Sylvia. Auschwitz, Birkenau, Majdanek.
  October 2010 – January 2011

 

 

Ticket prices (2017):
Full admission: €6

Reduced admission: €3 (students)

Opening hours
Monday: 9am – 2.30pm
Tuesday: 9am – 2.30pm
Wednesday: 9am – 2.30pm
Thursday: 9am – 2.30pm
Friday: 9am – 2.30pm
Saturdays: closed
Sundays: 10am – 2pm

Official website:
jewishmuseum.gr