Even before its opening on Monday May 15, this brand new museum sparked controversy by removing a photo that was part of the very first exhibition. A cliché of a naked Israeli soldier that would not have been to the taste of ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The full opening of the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem is scheduled for September 2024 but part of it will be accessible to the public from Monday 15 May with the photo exhibition entitled Illustrations of Israel, 75 years of shooting. It was unveiled in preview two weeks ago during a prestigious evening with the President of Israel. And on this occasion, the family of an exposed photographer discovered that a photo had been taken down.
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It is about theA well-known image in Israel, in which we see an Israeli soldier during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Next to a Jeep, he washes himself with water flowing from a military canister. He is therefore completely naked, from the front, his sex clearly visible. The author of the photo is Micha Bar Am, a true legend of photojournalism in Israel, 92 years old.
Protect “the feelings of certain visitors”
The management of the museum justified the removal of the photo as follows: ” The Museum of Tolerance wishes to respect the feelings of all audiences and communities. The photo in question might hurt the feelings of some visitors.” Implied: very religious visitors, especially ultra-Orthodox Jews. The photographer’s son replied: “And the feelings of the laity, then?”
Tolerance Museum and Jerusalem Municipality turn new page, agree to work together
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) May 2, 2023
Even before its opening, the museum has chained criticism: explosion of the bill for a site that lasted 18 years, construction on a former Muslim cemetery, legal recourse, resignation of the first architect Frank Ghery… The museum part will be marginal in the huge building, more reserved for restaurants or conference rooms. And, while it is supposed to be the twin brother of the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, that of Jerusalem will not have a space devoted to the Memory of the Holocaust.
Those who have visited it in preview, however, speak of a fabulous, magnificent, inventive building.
