Behind the Scenes:
Notes from Museum Director
Rhoda Rosen
A Note From Museum Director Rhoda Rosen
January / February 2007
As construction proceeds on the new Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies facility, Spertus Museum's onsite exhibitions are closed and our staff is busy with preparations for the new museum. It is my pleasure to share some of what is happening behind the scenes during this important time of transition.
As young German men come of age, they are conscripted into the German military for a period of nine months. In place of serving in the military, however, many choose to perform alternative social service, and these young men staff an array of social agencies within Germany ranging from health services to pre-schools. In addition, a few of these young men have the opportunity of volunteering for an organization called Action Reconciliation for Peace (ARSP), which places these young German volunteers in countries around the world which are in dire need of aid. These young German conscientious objectors may also elect to be placed in a Jewish agency as a means of making personal, individual reconciliations with the past. Indeed, according to their founding proclamation, ARSP was established in 1958 with this expressed aim:
We Germans began the Second World War and for this reason alone, more than others, we are guilty for bringing immeasurable suffering to mankind. Germans murdered millions of Jews in outrageous rebellion against God. Those of us who did not want this annihilation did not do enough to prevent it. For this reason we are still not at peace – there has not been true reconciliation...We are requesting all peoples who suffered violence at our hands to allow us to perform good deeds in their countries...to carry out this symbol of reconciliation.
At Spertus Museum we are privileged to host Johan Arne Thies through ARSP as he performs his alternative to military service.
At Spertus, Johan is working on two main projects. His first project entails provenance research of those Holocaust-era objects in our collection given to us by the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc., an organization formed at the end of World War II to reassign and safeguard heirless Jewish cultural property seized by the Nazis.
His second task is to help us with the research for a future exhibition we are planning in which our antique Holy Land map collection is juxtaposed with contemporary artworks that include cartographic references in their powerful explorations of contemporary questions regarding the land – an exhibition that is part of a city-wide festival of maps, planned for 2007-2008. While his work helps the museum immeasurably, in exchange we feel that learning about the Shoah and Israel offer Johan a critical understanding of the Jewish experience. Please join me in welcoming Johan.
Warm regards,
Rhoda Rosen
Director, Spertus Museum
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