New Zealand’s first Jewish Museum and it’s only exclusively online Museum, The Jewish Online Museum (JoM) has opened its virtual doors to visitors after more than three years of planning.
The new museum marks both a local and global first following a process that has involved some of the country’s top creative talent.
The project’s full-time curator, Keren Cook, told J-Wire the Museum was established to preserve the tradition, history, culture and knowledge of the local Jewish community
and will operate as a resource for New Zealand Jewry as well as being an online destination for the wider population.
“In particular, JoM will attempt to lend a uniquely Australasian and Pacific emphasis to the project of collecting and preserving, interpreting and publishing the narratives, objects and images that tell the stories of Jewish lives and heritage in New Zealand.’
“Our inaugural exhibition, Te Jewry, which traces the fascinating relationship between the Maori and New Zealand Jewry since the country’s earliest times is a terrific example of what the Museum is and will achieve in its role as the world’s first,” Ms Cook said.
David Ross, the Museum’s Auckland-based founder who has overseen the work since its inception in 2010, says the JoM will also promote greater understanding of many of the key individuals, organisations, cultural centres and congregations that have helped shape what is the world’s southernmost Jewish community.
“The JoM has been designed to function as both a portal to those numerous institutions that chronicle Jewish lives and contributions in this country and overseas, while at the same time operating as a cultural and educational destination in and of itself.
“We’re incredibly proud to be offering a new institution that will serve the interests of educators, scholars, the general public and the country’s Jewish community alike,” Mr Ross said.
The Auckland-based operation will be run as a charitable, not-for-profit organisation.
Visit the Museum at http://jewishonlinemuseum.org