Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Jan 1 - Visit to Tel Aviv University and Museum of the Diaspora

Beit Hatfutsot, aka, the House or Museum of the Jewish People, aka the Museum of the Diaspora, is on the campus of the University of Tel Aviv. It is about a mile north of the Ha Yarkon River.

Having returned the rental car we used the bus to get there. It turned out there was a bus that stopped near Rambam square and went to near the gate to Tel Aviv University. The bus driver only charged us each (Ann and I) the senior citizen rate (about $1).

The first image shows the outside of the front of the building. 

The second image shows a reconstruction of the ceiling of a synagogue in Gwozdziec. This city was in Poland at the time the synagogue was first build in the 17th century but today is in the Ukraine. The museum in Tel Aviv has a 1/2 scale version. There is a 1:1 version of this same ceiling that will be in a Museum in Warsaw Poland when that museum opens. 

The museum also has some original objects. Arguably, the most famous and historically important is the "Taylor-Schechter" manuscript.

This manuscript was purchased by two English tourists to Egypt in 1896 and shown to Solomon Schechter, a professor at Cambridge University. The manuscript led to the discovery of the Cairo Geniza, one of the most significant Jewish archeological finds ever.

The Geniza (a geniza is where old documents that may not be destroyed because of intrisic holiness or because they contain the name of God are sequestered) contained thousands of original manuscripts, some signed by Maimonides, some in Hebrew, some in Aramaic, some in Arabic. The manuscripts covered about a millennium of history and provided primary evidence of Jewish religious, community, commercial, social and political developments in Egypt and elsewhere. 

Also on the grounds of the University are numerous sculptures. The final image is one of the more interesting of them. It is the Kesher sculpture by Ron Arad (Kesher is frequently translated as 'communication' but could also mean 'linkage' or 'connection'). 
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