Europe Euphoria

A Jewish museum dedicated to the heritage and the future of its growing Jewish community opens in Munich, Germany, the city that was the birthplace of Nazism. An $18 million cube shaped museum is a part of new complex in the central Jakobsplatz square. The aspects of Jewish life past and present, religious rites and festivals of the Jewish year will be the focus of the exhibition in the museum. There are many objects in display including Renaissance manuscripts, a Jewish wedding ring from 1500, and a 550-year-old prayer book for the Jewish Sukkoth holiday. Alfred Pringsheim’s collection, which includes Renaissance-era ceramics, and silver items are there in the museum. Collections of the mathematician and father-in-law of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Thomas Mann are also included. This is the second-propose-built Jewish museum in Europe. In 2001, a Jewish museum designed by architect Daniel Libeskind was built in Berlin. The museum opens to public on Friday, 23 March,2007.