“Beginning with Abraham right up to today and beyond, we tell the unique 4,000-year-old story of the Jewish people,” Itamar Kramer, Director of Education told Israel Today. “ANU” – Hebrew for ‘us’ is the name of the new Museum of the Jewish People, which tells the ongoing extraordinary story of our nation.
After 14 years of planning and construction, the aging 42-year-old Beit Hatfusot or Diaspora Museum on the campus of Tel-Aviv University has been transformed into the largest museum of the Jewish people in the world. “We call the project ’ANU’ because this is ‘our’ story,” Kramer said as we began the tour. “We want every Jew in the world to know that they belong to Israel and the worldwide Jewish community. Each one of us has a part to play in the story of the Jewish people,” he said.
The original Beit Hatfusot, or Diaspora Museum, opened in 1978 thanks to the vision of Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress from 1954-1977. Then in...
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In January 1998 my wife and I visited Beit Hatfusot on David’s recommendation. We were profoundly affected by that visit, to a great extent even than Yad Vashem. I am sorry to read of the changes as set out in David’s article.