New Educational Activities

1998

The first educational programmes began in the new premises of the Jewish Museum, with a view to offering the children an alternative, more enjoyable and experiential form of tour, quite different than the one for adults. The programmes aim at bringing children into contact with the Jewish culture, while encouraging the development of initiative and critical thought.
The Educational Progremmes Area is equipped with copies of the Museum?s exhibits, which the children can touch and examine.

1999

The Jewish Museum?s programmes for children 11-12 years old were improved, and new ones were created for 8 to 10-year-old children.
Two days of activities were organised in March for families of the Jewish communities of Larissa and Volos. The programme included guided tours and educational games.
A day of activities was organised in May, for children of the Jewish Communities of Thessalonica, Rhodes and Ioannina, who had been invited by the Jewish Community of Athens.

2000

A seminar on intercultural education took place at the Museum, for Museum Educators who had taken part in the two-year-long programme of the Hellenic Children?s Museum. The seminar took place at the Jewish Museum in February and the J.M.G.?s own Educator attended another, on the same subject at the Children?s Museum. The seminars marked the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration between the two museums.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, on May 14^th, students of the Jewish School of Athens presented at the J.M.G. the play “Albert?s Story” about the fate of a Jewish family from Thessalonica during the Holocaust.
The fifth and sixth forms of the Jewish School of Athens were the first to participate in the new programme “The customs of the Jewish Communities of Greece”.

2001

On January 29, students of the Hellenic Children?s Museum Seminar for Museum Educators attended the customary annual lecture at the J.M.G., on issues of Museography and education.
An educational day for families was organised, in collaboration with the Hellenic Children?s Museum. Its subject was “Easter and Pesach” and both parents and children had the chance to discover and compare the customs of the two holidays.
A meeting with Ms. Stella Priovolou, Special Secretary of Intercultural Education of the Greek Ministry of Education, took place in October, during which she was informed about the educational programmes of the J.M.G. with a view to promoting them to Greek schools.
More than 26 schools visited the Jewish Museum?s exhibition “Children?s faces and objects of a century past” and participated in educational programmes based on it.

2002

The sixth form of the Jewish School of Athens was the first to attend the Museum?s new programme “Young Curator”. Under the supervision of the J.M.G.?s educator, the children carried out all the tasks of recording, documenting and storing an item in the Museum?s storage facilities. The aim of the programme was to familiarise children with Museum processes.
Special guided tours were attended by students of the Museology department of Athens College, the Hellenic Children?s Museum Seminar for Museum Educators, and three departments of the Panteion University of Athens.

2003

A new educational programme was created, based on the exhibition “Hidden children in Occupied Greece”. It was later expanded to include the art exhibition “Dialogue with a Museum” which ran parallel to the first.
In May, the pupils of the sixth form of the Jewish School of Athens were the first to take part in those two new programmes.

2004

On October 22, the Jewish Museum?s most innovative educational initiative took place: the seminar “Teaching the Holocaust in Greece” for high school teachers. It was the first attempt to present teaching methods for that particular subject to Greek educators. The seminar took place under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Education and was sponsored by the International Task Force for Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, as well as the Cultural Department of the U.S. Embassy in Athens.
Another innovation of the Museum?s was presented during the seminar: a Museum Case, titled “Hidden Children in Occupied Greece” based on the exhibition of the same title and containing rich visual material for an interactive presentation in the classroom.
Students of the fifth and sixth forms of the Jewish School of Athens visited the Museum and participated in the educational programme “Hidden Children in Occupied Greece–Hidden Works of Art in the Museum”.

2005

The Jewish Museum?s Educator visited the Jewish School of Thessalonica in January and presented the educational programme and the activities of the Museum Case “Hidden Children in Occupied Greece” to children of the fourth, fifth and sixth forms.
After a proposal of the Principal of the Jewish School of Athens, Mr. G. Kanellos, a new educational programme was created with the collaboration, for the first time, of two of the most important Museums of Athens: the Byzantine and Christian Museum, and the Benaki Museum Collection of Islamic Art. The programme?s subject is the holy texts of all three monotheistic religions and took place for the first time in May.
The J.M.G. took part in the programme “European Days of Cultural Heritage”, organised by the Greek Ministry of Culture. This year?s topic was “Culture at the table - various approaches of the History of Food” and the Jewish Museum contributed its educational programme for families “Welcome to our table”, which took place in September. Parents and children learned about the dietary rules of Judaism and the forbidden foods. They also discovered the dietary customs of various Jewish holidays, by tasting each holiday?s corresponding traditional specialty. An educational leaflet, recipes and a list of the dietary rules of Judaism, accompanied the programme. As many participating teachers expressed a wish to for their pupils to join in, the J.M.G. d