Jewish Children's Museum
Source: Jewish Children's Museum
The Jewish Children's Museum, located in the Chabad-Lubavitch Chasidic community of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, New York, is the largest Jewish-themed children's museum in the United States. It aims for children of all faiths and backgrounds to gain a positive perspective and awareness of the Jewish heritage, fostering tolerance and understanding. The permanent collection features exhibits designed to be both educational and entertaining to children, often employing cutting edge interactive multimedia. The six floors of the museum house an array of exhibits and displays covering Judaism throughout the ages.
The interactive computer training labs on the lower level are devoted to hands-on learning. They are home to dozens of creative workshops, as well as an arts and crafts center where children bake challah or matzos, carve shofars, make menorahs and braid havdalah candles.
The heart of the museum is in the galleries which occupy the third and fourth floors. There visitors encounter an array of exhibits and displays covering Jewish history and heroes, holidays and customs, the Holocaust, and contemporary Jewish life. Some 100 lifelike dioramas add a concrete visual dimension to the exhibits in conjunction with multi-media presentations designed to capture the attention of the museum's young visitors. The top two floors of the Museum hold administrative offices, a conference room and support services.
Young visitors are invited to climb on a giant challah loaf, split the “Red Sea” and “Shop” for kosher groceries in a scaled-down supermarket. Children are catapulted into the spotlight as they broadcast the story of Chanukah from a TV studio.
The Jewish mini golf course on the terrace lets golfers play through the six different stages of Jewish life starting with the first hole (birth), going through life until death and burial.
The Jewish Childrens Museum is run by Tzivos Hashem, an international children’s organization that was founded over twenty years ago at the behest of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.
The museum entertains visitors throughout the week except for Fridays and Saturdays for a $10 admission fee.