The Jewish Community Museum

The Jewish Community Museum

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02.09.2024

The Lviv Interactive platform presents new texts by Dr. Vladyslava Moskalets on the contexts surrounding the creation of the Jewish Community Museum (or Jewish Museum), which operated in Lviv in 1934-1940. 

The Museum was founded by a group of collectors, philanthropists, and representatives of Jewish elites and artists, including Józef Awin, Marek and Ada Reichenstein, Ludwik Lille, and Wiktor Chajes. It was created as an institution within the Jewish community of Lviv, which was to be engaged in identifying, preserving, and exhibiting cultural memorabilia. The museum's collection was based on private collections and deposits from synagogues and individuals.

We also invite you to read the accompanying texts: biographies of the collector and art historian Maksymilian Goldstein and the ethnologist and art historian Giza Frankel, as well as material about an exhibition of Jewish artisanal crafts in 1933.

The Jewish Community Museum

The central text on the museum, which was created as an institution within the Jewish community of Lviv. The museum’s staff was engaged in the identification, preservation, and exhibition of cultural monuments. The museum’s collection was based on private collections and deposits from synagogues and individuals.

Maksymilian Goldstein

The biography describes the collection activities of Goldstein, a collector, art historian, and one of the initiators of the Jewish Museum in Lviv.

Giza Frenkel

Biography of an art historian, researcher of Jewish culture, and author of exhibition reviews of the Museum of the Jewish Community in Lviv.

An Exhibition of Jewish Art

The exhibition of 1933 was one of the first dedicated to Jewish art. Its scale drew the attention of the Lviv audience to the problems of preserving Jewish material culture.

Credits

Cover Image: Opening ceremony of the Jewish Community Museum, 1934 // Chwilla. Dodatek ilustrowany