
The Permanent Collection Amsterdam: the meeting of two Diasporas
The theme of historical memory is broached here for the first time through the festivals of Purim and Hanukkah. The ensemble of Hanukkah lamps is the only collection in the museum to include all styles, forms, origins and periods of a given object. This panorama stands as a metaphor for the great diversity of Jewish customs throughout the world.
The wanderings of the Spanish Jews are pursued in a small collection of 17th and 18th century Dutch engravings. It includes a series by Bernard Picard entitled Ceremonies and Religious Customs of all Peoples of the World and provides an introduction to the model integration of the Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam, London and Bordeaux. The accent in this space is on the importance of relations between communities.
At the meeting point of these last two spaces, there are display cases devoted to the development of Hebrew printing.