The Problem With Jewish Museums

In more than a decade of writing about museums, first for the New York Times and now for the Wall Street Journal, Iâ??ve reviewed history museums, science museums, political museums, and museums created by eccentric collectors. Iâ??ve visited two museums devoted to neon signs and one to ventriloquistsâ?? dummies, a creation-science museum and a science-fiction museum. Iâ??ve seen human mutations preserved in glass jars and coffee beans sent to Confederate soldiers during the Civil War, a mummified cat and a fragment of Jeremy Benthamâ??s skin. But I havenâ??t seen anything quite so strange as the ways in which various Jewish communities in the United States, in Europe, and in Israel have come to depict themselves in museums.