MUSÉE D'ART ET D'HISTOIRE DU JUDAÏSME (MAHJ)

Open to the public since December 1998, the MAHJ is located in the area of le Marais, the historical heart of Paris and, since the 19th century, one of the main Jewish residential areas in the city. The MAHJ is located in a renovated 17th-century mansion, property of the city of Paris and assigned to the housing of a museum of Jewish civilization by Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, already in 1986. All the costs for the construction and functioning of the museum were and are covered in equal terms by the municipality of Paris and the Ministry of Culture. The very rich collections of the MAHJ originated in the collections of the Musée d'Art Juif, a former Jewish museum created in 1948 which discontinued its activities, and in the Jewish collection of the National Museum for the Middle Ages. Among several donors and depositors, one can mention the Paris Consistory, which entrusted to the MAHJ its important collection of ritual objects. Apart from the permanent exhibition, the MAHJ organizes temporary exhibitions, hosts cultural events in its auditorium, receives the public in its library and documentation center, and puts very special emphasis on workshops for youth. The founder-president of MAHJ was Claude-Gérard Marcus, who was succeeded by Théo Klein\>\> . In 2006 the director was Laurence Sigal.