Museum of Jewish Diaspora Art in Israel

Project description

The Museum of Jewish Diaspora Art will be created in Israel — the national home of the Jewish people — presenting works by outstanding artists from the Ashkenazi, Mountain, Bukharian and Georgian Jewish communities of the Diaspora.

Its mission is to affirm that the Jewish people are alive and will continue to live, despite the Holocaust, pogroms, and antisemitism ancient and modern. The exhibition stands as visual testimony to the tolerance and peacefulness, genius and talent of the Jewish people, wherever they live and create — becoming a unique bridge of cooperation and cultural contact between Jews in Israel and across the Diaspora.

The museum’s work is also devoted to charitable humanitarian assistance for the families of the hostages and of the Jews killed on October 7, 2023 in Israel. As a home for creativity, the museum will further support the aliyah of talented and creative people and their families, and open new opportunities for Jewish artists to present their work — directly from their studios and private collections — to the wider public, including the many tourists who visit Israel.

Collection & Programmes

• Diaspora Art Collection — painting, graphics, sculpture, installations and Judaica by outstanding Jewish artists of the Ashkenazi, Mountain, Bukharian and Georgian communities worldwide.
• Rotating & Permanent Exhibitions — works are donated free of charge for set periods (for example, six months) and continuously renewed, while selected outstanding works remain permanently in the museum’s collection.
• Charitable Art Auctions — some works are offered at internal auctions, with proceeds shared, in agreed proportions, as charitable donations to Israel, the museum and the artists.
• Humanitarian Support (October 7) — directing charitable assistance to the families of the hostages and of the Jews killed on October 7, 2023 in Israel.
• A Bridge Israel–Diaspora & Aliyah — strengthening cultural contact between Israel and the Diaspora and supporting the aliyah of creative people and their families.
• Beyond the Community — including works by non-Jewish artists who devoted their art to Jewish life, traditions and the history of the Jewish shtetls.

How We Work

The Assembly of the World Diasporas is already negotiating with artists in the Diaspora, and with the descendants and legal successors of departed masters, for the transfer of works to the future Museum of Jewish Diaspora Art.

The concept is already in motion: an art gallery, “Fiddler on the Roof,” has been established and opened in the Central Synagogue of Kyiv, and already presents numerous works by Jewish and non-Jewish artists — a first step toward the museum in Israel.

Featured Artists

Among the artists who may take part are world-renowned masters of the Diaspora: Academician Mikhail Turovsky, Samuel Kaplan, Herman Gold, Zinovy Tolkachev, Mikhail Weinstein, Akim Levich, Lyubov Rapoport, Yuli Sheinis, Olga Markish-Rapay, Zoya Lerman, Iosif Vaisblat, Albert Leizer Feldman, and many others — the list remains open.

Their works are held in museum and private collections across America, Europe and Israel, and have been shown in New York (including UN headquarters), Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Paris, Madrid, London, Geneva, Brussels, Venice, Kyiv, Bordeaux and Lille.

How to Support

Founders, owners and patrons are invited to participate in establishing the museum — an international project that will grow the reach of Jewish art and strengthen international and interethnic cooperation against antisemitism. Supporters will receive international recognition at the highest political and social levels.