Sydney Jewish Museum to open new Centre of Contemporary Jewish Life

An expanded museum precinct on the site of the current Sydney Jewish Museum will incorporate both a Centre of Contemporary Jewish Life and a Sydney Holocaust Museum.

The expansion project aims to double the number of visitors from 55,000 annually to 100,000 by 2032.

Expected to open by 2027, the new precinct will house two museums in one at the original Darlinghurst site, a Centre of Contemporary Jewish Life and a Sydney Holocaust Museum.

It will include programming that celebrates Jewish life and culture, strengthens the museum’s telling of Holocaust history, and responds to a changing world with programs that actively challenge racism and antisemitism.

Both Liberal and Labor have committed to supporting the expansion with funding in the vicinity of $10 million, if elected at tomorrow’s NSW election.

Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) was founded in 1992 by the generation of Holocaust survivors who made new lives in Sydney after the war. It was opened in Darlinghurst’s historic Jewish War Memorial Hall and became a place for survivors to share their memories, commemorate the six million Jewish people who were murdered, and provide important messages to future generations about tolerance and inclusion.

Its displays have a heavy emphasis on the Holocaust with limited space for other aspects of contemporary Jewish culture.

SJM Head of Marketing Ilana Gertskis said it was essential that the new museum precinct continued to tell the stories of the Holocaust, but it was also important that it provided access points to other aspects of Jewish culture.

She said the museum welcomes 28,000 school students but most of them are secondary students who visit as part of curriculum studies. It has little to offer primary students and could also provide a greater range of options for family visitors from the general public.

“The expansion will allow us to present a greater diversity of material about Jewish culture to help educate the public and demystify Jewish life. We will remain true to our mission of countering antisemitism and telling the stories of the six million who were murdered in the Holocaust, but we also want to focus more on the positive message.”