Hidden Jewels in Moscow: Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre

Hidden Jewels in Moscow: Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre

Location: улица Образцова 11, стр.1, лит. А, Moscow, Russia

Cost: 

200 roubles (For full-time university students, ISIC card holders, school children, parents with many children and retirees)

Free (For children below the age of 7, disabled persons, war veterans, military servicemen, orphans)

400 roubles (For everyone else)

SGD1 ~ 47 roubles

Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre

The museum is said to be the largest Jewish museum in the world, costing about US$50 million to build. It encompasses a huge area divided chronologically into thematic exhibitions. Thus, by following a map provided in English or Russian one is able to follow the history of the Jews from the creation of Mankind to the Jewish lives in Soviet Russia. Following this trail enables one to understand the point of view or perspective of the Jews towards their own culture as well as the reasons behind their dealings with the world and the mistreatment they received from being part of this culture. The museum is a very state-of-the art museum with a plethora of interactive and creative exhibits. You will also be able to learn a great deal about this often misunderstood and rather mysterious culture. Indeed, this museum is a very much underrated 'hidden' jewel for the traveller with the time!

Experience

For very much the same reason for not visiting the other Hidden Jewels in this Blog Series, the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre is not the primary reason one would go to Moscow. However, if one did have the time and is perhaps in need of a unique and worthwhile experience, the Jewish Museum is one place that would not disappoint for spending a whole 2 hours in.

Gulag History Museum Closure

I came here in the summer of 2018. To be honest, this museum was not the museum I had planned to visit for that day; I had planned to visit the Gulag History Museum.  Thus, after class had ended around 2.30pm, I headed back to my dormitory near Prospect Mira to put away my books and stuff and then took a long trip eastward to the Gulag History Museum. Unfortunately, that museum was apparently closed - and closed for quite a while too! -and it was only when I talked to a security guard in the building that I found out it was closed. I found it strange that there was no notice of the museum’s closure made available online but, in any case, my plan for the afternoon had been derailed.

As I sat and pondered as to what I should do next, I quickly looked at my list of places to visit and checked which is the nearest place I could go to because some places of attractions would close early at around 8 or 9pm and at that time, it was already around 4pm. It turns out, the Jewish Museum is the nearest place I could go, only a 20 minutes bus ride further eastwards from where I was.

Journey to the Jewish Museum

Thus, I took a trolley bus, ‘7’, which took me about 20 minutes where I dropped off a short 5 mins walk away from the Jewish Museum. When I got off the trolley bus, I found myself surrounded by buildings which looked like factory warehouses with several shops littered around. As I got nearer to the museum, I also notice that the neighbourhood is kind of like a Jewish neighbourhood as you start to see people in Jewish yamada caps and certain shops also displayed Hebrew words and sold Jewish cultural goods. About a 5 minutes walk later, I turned a corner and came to this huge complex which looked like a refurbished high-end factory with the Russian word for Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre prominently displayed on the façade of the building (Do try to remember how these Russian words looks like, as it will greatly help you in identifying and locating the museum!).

I entered the compound and walked into this sort of like a mini park with a shelter in it, I think it was a café or it could be an outdoor performance area. As it was during the World Cup, a huge projector screen had been propped up and I could see about 4-5 people seated there, presumably waiting for a match that was starting later in that evening. I walked past it, past a carpark and entered the building.

The Museum

Instantly, I was bedazzled by the vast interior. The museum has a very high ceiling, thus creating a very open breathable space. The place too is very huge, perhaps the size of a football field, and from my first impression of the displays that were near me, I knew that this place has a lot of things to offer that would keep me entertained for hours. At the entrance, there was a security check where I handed over my bag and a metal detector ran through my belongings. After the check, I walked towards the ticket counter across the entrance where I could purchase my ticket there. The man attending the counter could speak good English thus I had no trouble showing my ISIC card which entitled me a discounted price and he also gave me a map to tour the exhibits. According to the map, which had clear numbers written on them, I had to follow the numbers representing the different thematic exhibit and this would provide a clear flow to my museum experience.

Each exhibit is unique and different from the next one and the amazing thing is that each exhibit is interactive in their own unique ways. In one of the exhibit, I could take part in a Jewish dinner ceremony, where I moved objects around the dining table while being seated and this triggered some motion sensors that activated a video clip or audio clip explaining some of the Jewish customs related to dining. In another exhibit, I could enter a small replica of a synagogue and flip through a big digital Torah to uncover the history of the early Jewish people. In another, I could digitally dress up as a blacksmith or a rabbi and have my photo taken, which I could later then purchase at the museum gift shop at the end. In others, I could walk into the homes of prisoners and Jewish homes and have a look around a convincing mock-up to understand the lives of this group of people. Technology was greatly embedded in each of the exhibits and this gave an interesting and fun take to the traditional history museums. Another welcoming treat I find in this museum was the availability of English translations for almost all the exhibits, which is rarely the case in the other museums I have visited in Russia.

What sets this Jewish Museum apart from other Jewish Museums elsewhere are the exhibits that told about the history of the Soviet Union as well as the lives and treatments towards the Jewish people in Soviet Russia. It seems that while the Jewish people are active participants of Soviet history, they were also treated unfavourably during certain periods of time that resulted in some earlier diasporas from Russia for example.

Worth it Experience: 4-D ride

The exhibit and experience which I thought made the ticket itself worth was the 4-D ride I got to take located very early on in the museum map tour. The ‘exhibit’ is a small round domed theatre located around the middle of the museum where one is able to enter during the given showtimes. When it is showtime, I gave my ticket to an usher who scanned my ticket and gave me a pair of 3D glasses and then I walked into the dark theatre room for the show to begin. The chairs could move like a theme park ride and as it is a 4D effects show, air pressure machines and water sprays sprayed at me corresponding to the clip I was watching. The experience went for about 10-15 minutes I think, and it was about the creation of the world to an earlier part of Jewish history. I remember there was the story of Moses and I think Noah too because there were scenes of locusts where I was puffed with pressurized air and then sprayed with water while being accompanied by huge rocking movements. I just remember thinking to myself how incredible the ride is and how worth-it it the ticket price feels like, just for this ride because I have been to similar rides in Canada for example but it costs a lot more and did not come with a museum pass!

Time

There was also another theatre I could have entered and experienced in one of the later exhibits but unfortunately, I did not have the time. Due to my earlier change of plan, I came quite late and in fact, I was the last visitor to the museum and the museum near to the closing time was virtually empty. In the 4D theatre, there was only one other female student visitor in there with me for example and in almost all the exhibits, I was the only person looking through them. The place is simply enormous and if you really want to try everything out, I would recommend allocating 2 hours to visiting this museum. I spent about 1.5 hours, but I missed the last 4-5 exhibits as a result of coming here late.

Some of my favorite exhibit that I managed to experience was an exhibit about the Great Patriotic War (otherwise referred to as World War II to other parts of the World) where it gave me a background of the war efforts of the Soviets in repelling the German invasion of their homeland. The Soviets of course played a crucial and often understated role in ensuring Hitler did not reign supreme over Europe. In this exhibit, you can view a couple of interviews of war veterans that talked about the conditions of the war, the lack of preparation of the Soviet army, the nationalistic feeling of defending one's homeland and also an interesting insight of how Soviet Jews were able to conduct some of their Jewish customs amid the chaos of the war.

Museum Shop

A museum employee checked up on me and informed me that the museum was closing. Hence, I made my way back towards the entrance, slightly forlorn that I missed quite a bit of exhibits that looked just as amazing as the ones I have visited has been. On my way out, I passed the museum shop which was still open and tended by one female staff at the counter. Wanting to have a remembrance sake from my visit here, I bought a passport holder of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, a ‘Super Jew’ badge (which costs a whooping 400 roubles) and 2 pictures of me, one dressed as a Rabbi and another dressed as a Blacksmith. Thanking the lady, I left the museum feeling grateful for the opportunity to have been here.