Rebekah's Project
For my final project, I’d like to study the Jewish Children’s Museum in Brooklyn. I visited it last weekend with Arrie, and I’m still trying to digest the experience. While I am Jewish, my experience of the religion is from a pretty liberal point of view, and I have had very little exposure to orthodox and Hassidic neighborhoods, practices, and people. However, I’m very familiar with children’s museums having worked in one for two summers. I’m interested in how culture is marketed and presented to children and how children learn about cultures different than their own. The Jewish Children’s Museum follows a similar interface to other museums that cater to this age group. It is very interactive, educational, creative, and colorful. It makes great use of technology and includes multi-sensory experiences and arts and crafts. What makes it different from any other children’s museum however is that while it has a huge cultural and ethnic base to draw from, it is essentially about a religion, and that makes me nervous. I’m interested in exploring the commercialization and commodification of religious values that are present and the marketing to a young audience. What concerns me is that the mission statement states “The Museum is a setting for children of all faiths and backgrounds to gain a positive perspective and awareness of the Jewish heritage, fostering tolerance and understanding.” (from their website) However, the only non-Jews who I saw there were either janitors or security officers. I’m interested in the relationship between the museum and children in the neighborhood and city who are not Jewish. For example, when Arrie and I went to do our craft (making a bracelet with our Hebrew name), the staff person didn’t know at first what to do about Arrie because she doesn’t have a Hebrew name. I’m curious what the museum does to reach out to the non-Jewish community. I’ll definitely be planning to go back and visit the museum again, so if anyone’s interested in checking it out, let me know!