Israel Museum Review

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Israel Museum

  • Address: Ruppin Rd., Givat Ram, Jerusalem
  • Phone: 02/670-8811
  • www.imj.org.il

Fodor's Review:

An eclectic treasure trove, the museum is a world-class don't-miss. At the time of this writing, its entire main complex was closed for an $80 million "renewal," with a reopening date of June 2010. New exhibits, fresh ideas, and state-of-the-art presentations will enhance the three main specialties of art, archaeology, and Judaica. Meanwhile, take time to explore what is open: the Dead Sea Scrolls in the white-domed Shrine of the Book, the 1:50 scale model of 1st-century-AD Jerusalem, the sculpture garden, and fascinating changing exhibits in the Youth Wing.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are certainly the Israel Museum's most famous—and most important—collection. The first of the 2,000-year-old scrolls were discovered by a Bedouin boy in 1947 in a Judean Desert cave, overlooking the Dead Sea. The adventures of these priceless artifacts before they found a permanent home here are the stuff of which Indiana Jones movies are made. The shape of the pavilion was inspired by the lids of the clay jars in which the first scrolls were found.

The scrolls were written in the Second-Temple period by a fundamentalist Jewish sect, conventionally identified as the Essenes, as they are referred to by contemporary historians. All archaeological, laboratory, and textual evidence dates the earliest of the scrolls to the 2nd century BC; none could have been written later than AD 68, the year in which their home community, known today as Qumran, was destroyed by the Romans. Written on parchment, and still in an extraordinary state of preservation because of the exceptional dryness of the Dead Sea region, the scrolls contain the oldest Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament ever found, authenticating the almost identical Hebrew texts still in use today. Sectarian literature includes "The Rule of the Community," a sort of constitution of this ascetic group, and "The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness," a blow-by-blow account of a final cataclysmic conflict that would, they believed, presage the messianic age.

The quarter-acre scale model,adjacent to the Shrine of the Book, represents Jerusalem as it was on the eve of the Great Revolt against Rome (AD 66). For 40 years, the huge, intricate reconstruction was a popular attraction in its original home, on the grounds of West Jerusalem's Holyland Hotel. It moved to the Israel Museum in 2006, when the hotel was overtaken by high-end property development.

When the model was originally built in the mid-1960s, its designer, the late Professor Michael Avi-Yonah, relied on considerable data gleaned from Roman-period historians, important Jewish texts, and even the New Testament. Later archaeological excavations have sometimes confirmed and sometimes contradicted his inspired guesswork, and the model has been updated occasionally to incorporate new knowledge. The available audioguide is a worthwhile asset in deciphering the site.

The open-air Art Garden was designed against a Judean Hills cityscape by the landscape architect Isamu Noguchi. Crunch over the gravel amid works by Daumier, Rodin, Moore, and Picasso.

Once a year, when the youth wing is not substituting for closed exhibition wings, it mounts a new exhibition, delightfully interactive and often adult-friendly, designed to encourage children to appreciate the arts and the world around them, or be creative in a crafts workshop. Parents with restless kids will also be grateful for the outdoor play areas. A cafeteria (only one at this writing, and closed Saturday) and a museum store complete the site.

  • Cost: NIS 42 (includes audioguide); half price for return visit within one month (keep your ticket)
  • Open: Sun., Mon., Wed., Thurs., Sat., and Jewish holidays 10-5, Tues. 4-9, Fri. and Jewish holiday eves 10-2.
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