Tuesday, December 30
Cultural Review: The Jewish Museum, New York
I visited this museum, the largest Jewish museum in the Western hemisphere, to see the Schoenberg, Kandinsky, and the Blue Rider exhibit, which runs through February 12, since we had studied Schoenberg in my Program of Liberal Studies Fine Arts class. If you enjoy Expressionism in painting or music, or just want to know mroe about it, this is a great, comprehensive exhibit. But if you're not, the Jewish Museum, for reasons I will explain, is still worth checking out on your next visit to the Big Apple.
The museum's permanent exhibition is called "Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey," and it is splendid. Tracing the history of Judaism from Abraham to the present, it contains numerous artifacts, such as sixth-century (A.D.) mosaic floor from a synagogue, an amazingly diverse collection of menorahs, and numerous other sacred items. But more amazing than these is the incredible confidence and class with which the museum presents its material, which includes quotes from Jewish figures through the ages. It seemed to me that the museum's organizers are serious about their faith, and they were especially good at presenting the "tragic" aspects of Judaism going all the way back to Lamentations without in any trying to make me pity their plight or guilty for crimes committed by Christians against Jews. Rather, they simply ask for you to consider the claims of Judaism, and what they mean when enacted in life. That often does mean tragedy, and this is also a lesson for Christians. We need to do what we can to fix the problems of the world, but until the Second Coming, we're never going to get it done. The history of Judaism presented in this museum's exhibit gives a lesson of how to deal with that tragedy with true nobility and dignity, blessing (Psalm 34) God at all times, rather than cursing Him when things go wrong.
I visited this museum, the largest Jewish museum in the Western hemisphere, to see the Schoenberg, Kandinsky, and the Blue Rider exhibit, which runs through February 12, since we had studied Schoenberg in my Program of Liberal Studies Fine Arts class. If you enjoy Expressionism in painting or music, or just want to know mroe about it, this is a great, comprehensive exhibit. But if you're not, the Jewish Museum, for reasons I will explain, is still worth checking out on your next visit to the Big Apple.
The museum's permanent exhibition is called "Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey," and it is splendid. Tracing the history of Judaism from Abraham to the present, it contains numerous artifacts, such as sixth-century (A.D.) mosaic floor from a synagogue, an amazingly diverse collection of menorahs, and numerous other sacred items. But more amazing than these is the incredible confidence and class with which the museum presents its material, which includes quotes from Jewish figures through the ages. It seemed to me that the museum's organizers are serious about their faith, and they were especially good at presenting the "tragic" aspects of Judaism going all the way back to Lamentations without in any trying to make me pity their plight or guilty for crimes committed by Christians against Jews. Rather, they simply ask for you to consider the claims of Judaism, and what they mean when enacted in life. That often does mean tragedy, and this is also a lesson for Christians. We need to do what we can to fix the problems of the world, but until the Second Coming, we're never going to get it done. The history of Judaism presented in this museum's exhibit gives a lesson of how to deal with that tragedy with true nobility and dignity, blessing (Psalm 34) God at all times, rather than cursing Him when things go wrong.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
