Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme

Facade of the interior patio of the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan

The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme is a French museum of Jewish art and history located in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan at 71, rue du Temple in the Marais district in Paris. The museum is open daily except Saturday (Shabbat). An admission fee is charged. The nearest métro station is Rambuteau.

The museum dates from 1986 when the then-Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, made the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan (1650) available for a museum of Jewish civilization. Its interior was converted starting in 1993, with the initial collection formed in 1998 by combining the Strauss-Rothschild gift built up by Isaac Strauss and given by Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild in 1890 to the Musée de Cluny, with the holdings assembled since 1948 by the Musée d'Art Juif. This collection has been enhanced by acquisitions and donations of art, and historical and ethnological objects.

The museum reflects the history of Jewish communities in France, Europe, and North Africa, from the Middle Ages to the present. It contains archives of the Dreyfus affair, 20th-century art (Chagall, Modigliani, Soutine, Michel Kikoine), as well as objets d'art, textiles and manuscripts, and a 182-seat auditorium. The Carnavalet Museum has added to its collection of medieval tombstones.

See also

• List of museums in Paris

References

• Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme
• Ivy Paris description
• Stephen Fallon, Paris, Lonely Planet, 2004, page 89. ISBN 1740597605.
• Address by President of Republic Mr. Jacques Chirac on the Occasion of the Inauguration of the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, Paris, November 30, 1998 [1]

Coordinates: 48°51′40″N 2°21′19″E / 48.86111°N 2.35528°E / 48.86111; 2.35528