NEWS Venice Jewish Museum to undergo major renovations
By Pagine Ebraiche staff
Renovations at the Jewish Museum of Venice will kick off in the fall, after the period of the Jewish holidays.
Over three years, the goal is to create a place even more up to the task, safer as well as more modern and captivating.
The expansion and revitalization project for the Jewish Museum of Venice adopted by the city council and presented last week represents a fresh exciting challenge, both architectural and cultural.
As highlighted during a press conference organized by the city council in which mayor Luigi Brugnaro participated, the museum is going to become the major construction site in the Venetian Lagoon. The renovations will be an opportunity to further emphasize the connection between the city of Venice and the history and fate of its Jewish community.
The project, which is entirely privately financed (only by foreigners so far), “will benefit the whole city,” declared the President of the Jewish Community Paolo Gnignati. Gnignati also praised the team and the development of a plan based on “awareness.”
“The project is targeted to international tourism as well as the city and its inhabitants,” he added.
“The key word is going to be ‘opening outwards’ – the museum will symbolically open out towards Campo [del Ghetto Nuovo] and to the city,” announced Museum Director Marcella Ansaldi. “The ghetto is a spread-out museum on its own, and we want to take part in this challenge,” she added.
“It will be a structural renovation and it will include the world’s major Renaissance synagogue complex. Among other innovations, this project will also make the museum accessible to people with disabilities,” said project manager David Landau, who also promoted the fundraising campaign.
Landau then dwelt on the fundraising itself: “The first person I turned to was Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, who made a generous contribution. Many others are now following his lead. The project will cost more than 9 million euros,” Landau explained.
Attending the event onlin from New York, Lauder said he had always hoped for the three synagogues “of unique beauty and significance” to be included in the project.
“The project approval is a dream come true,” said Lauder.
(In the picture, the rendering project by apml_architetti)
Translated by Claudia Azzalini, student at the Advanced School for Interpreting and Translation of Trieste University and intern at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.