Jewish Museum of Belgium, Jewish museum in Belgium
The Jewish Museum of Belgium occupies the former Deutsche Schule at 21 rue des Minimes in the Sablon district, a four-storey eclectic building with neoclassical elements, a blue stone ground floor and a mansard roof. Its collection spans two buildings and five floors, with 750 ritual objects, 1,250 artworks and a library of 25,000 works.
The idea of a Jewish museum emerged in the late 1970s, and a small group was founded in 1981 to build a collection. After makeshift premises above the Beth Israel Synagogue, the museum opened at 21 rue des Minimes in 2005. On 24 May 2014, four people were killed in a shooting there; the perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019.
The museum's name appears in French, Dutch and English on its publications. Since 2017 it has run "Let's Meet a Jew", three workshops for school groups that present the diversity of Jewish cultures and question stereotypes. Concerts, lectures and literary evenings accompany the exhibitions.
The museum occupies two buildings over five floors at 21 rue des Minimes in the Sablon district; renovation work is scheduled to begin in 2026, so parts of the display may change. The rear wing opens onto rue de la Samaritaine. Check the programme before travelling, as temporary exhibitions and events such as concerts and lectures run alongside the permanent selection.
The building was the Deutsche Schule, a German-language school founded in 1892 by the Deutscher Schulverein in Brüssel; architect O. Flanneau designed the 1901-1902 premises, which later served as an annexe of the Belgian State Archives. The museum's library holds 25,000 works, including books in Yiddish and Hebrew.
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