Sydney Jewish Museum now online

June 1, 2021 by J-Wire Newsdesk
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Many of the personal artefacts of Holocaust survivors who migrated to Sydney, Australia, can now be viewed online on Google Arts & Culture.

Sydney Jewish Museum

This new partnership between Google and the Sydney Jewish Museum has brought these items to a worldwide audience in just a few clicks.

Take a tour inside the Sydney Jewish Museum’s permanent exhibitions on Judaism and the Holocaust. Explore the architecture of its heritage building that is nestled in Sydney’s inner eastern suburbs. Explore significant items from the Museum’s unique collection, including:

Specially curated stories have been developed for online visitors to discover the histories behind many of the Museum’s collection items. These digital stories explore tattoos from Auschwitz, remnants unearthed at the massacre site of Serniki in Ukraine, and the archive photographs of Jewish cameraman Sergeant Mike Lewis from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Sydney Jewish Museum’s CEO, Norman Seligman, said: “We are very proud of our Museum and this partnership with Google Arts & Culture puts us on the world stage. It is a momentous step to have people from all over the world interacting with our unique collection and stories from their computers and devices many miles away. We look forward to engaging with new audiences and sharing the stories behind our collection with a worldwide audience.”

Head Curator of the Museum, Roslyn Sugarman, commented: “We hope the online visitor will be inspired to engage with our collection, learn the stories behind the objects and develop a meaningful and empathic connection to history.”

Sydney’s Lord Mayor, Clover Moore added: “The exhibits, resources and stories that are housed in the Sydney Jewish Museum remind us how precarious a just and civil society can be, of how easily it can be subverted, and of what horrors can follow that subversion.

“Through the pandemic, we greatly missed the ability to visit physical spaces, but that
experience has fostered great innovation – it’s wonderful that the Sydney Jewish Museum’s poignant and powerful collection will be open to new audiences, and more accessible for those in Sydney.”

Tanya Plibersek is the Federal Labor Member for Sydney. She believes ‘everyone should visit the Sydney Jewish Museum in person if they can

She said: “But this terrific digitisation project will give these important artefacts a global audience. We should all know the history of the Holocaust – the stories of those who bore witness, the truth. As Primo Levi put it ‘…we can and must understand from where it [Fascism] springs, and we must be on our guard…because what happened can happen again…For this reason, it is everyone’s duty to reflect on what happened.’”

“It’s great to see such an important collection that has moved and educated people for many years about the terrible history of the Jewish people now able to be seen by people across the globe”, added Mr Alex Greenwich MP, State Member for Sydney.

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