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JEWISH MUSEUMS AROUND THE WORLD

PRESERVE JEWISH HERITAGE THROUGH

PRESERVATION OF CULTURAI, TREASURES.

SUZANNE CHESSLER

Special to the Jewish News

The exterior
of he Jewish
Ainseam
Berlin,
designed by
Daniel
Libeskind,
and, inset,
an interior
exhibition

University of Michigan
graduate opens the
doors to some 150
Jewish arts centers with
a new, large-format book, Jewish
Museums of the World (Hugh
Lauter Levin Associates; $75).
Grace Cohen Grossman, who
earned a bachelor's degree in art his-
tory while studying in Ann Arbor
and now is senior curator of Judaica
and Americana at the Skirball
Cultural Center in Los Angeles, net-
worked with colleagues and searched
the Internet to compile a list of
exhibitors that reaches from the
Jewish Museum of Belgium in
Brussels to the Ohel Moishe
Synagogue in Shanghai.
While the text covers the scope
of Judaic items in each institution
profiled, the pictures capture indi-
vidual treasures on display. Every
major entry references that muse-
um's history, locale and surround-
ing population. A directory at the
end of the book provides contact
information for the places
described in detail and 150 more.

"I'm pleased that so many people
from across the globe were willing
to share enough information with
me to build this book," says
Grossman, 56, who holds a master's
degree in art history from Columbia
University in New York and a doc-
toral degree in Jewish cultural histo-
ry from Hebrew Union College in
California.
"Some of the museums are actu-
ally synagogues where people see a
case or two of ceremonial objects. I
tried to get as many of these places
as I could because I wanted them
to have public attention."
Grossman has divided her cof-
fee-table edition, which weighs
more than eight pounds, into five
sections: "Central and Eastern
Europe," "Western Europe and
the Mediterranean Rim," "The
United States," "Israel" and
"From the Corners of the Earth."
The 400 illustrations, more than
350 in color, represent a vast array
of collectibles and structural
designs, starting with the cover art,
which shows the ornate painted
dome of a synagogue-museum in a
small city in Hungary. In contrast,

Global Guardians on page 36