Annual Conference 2011

The AEJM Annual Conference 2011 took place from 19 to 22 November 2011 at the Jewish Museum London. More than 85 delegates from 26 countries participated in this year’s Conference Jewish Museums in Europe: Interpreting Collections, Engaging Audiences with various lectures, panel discussions and workshops.

The programme started with the first keynote lecture ‘Making an Exhibition of Themselves: the Conflicted Heritage of Jews in Britain’ by Prof. David Cesarani (Royal Holloway University of London). Prof. Cesarani not only introduced the history of Jews in Britain, but also showed which problems a museum might encounter while displaying this history. In the second keynote lecture ‘Why do Jewish Museums Matter?’ prof. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett presented an international perspective on contemporary Jewish museums.

A special focus was given to museum education in the plenary session ‘Engaging Audiences through Education and Learning’ that included lectures by education staff members from London, Amsterdam and Paris. Delegates could further participate in workshops on Identifying and Interpreting Judaica, Digitising collections, Collecting and Interpreting Jewish Social History, and Provenance Research. During the excursion programmes the participants visited the Bevis Marks Synagogue, the Ben Uri Gallery, The Freud Museum, the Czech Scrolls Trust Museum at the Westminster Synagogue and the Judaica collection of the British Library.