The Friends of Zion Heritage Center, Interactive museum in Nahalat Shiva, Jerusalem, Israel.
The Friends of Zion Heritage Center is an interactive museum in Jerusalem featuring four floors with seven separate exhibitions. Touchscreens, 3D technology, and immersive sound systems guide visitors through the themed display spaces.
The museum opened in 2015 and documents how non-Jewish supporters contributed to Israel's creation from biblical times onward. These stories trace a path through to the Second World War period.
The museum's name refers to non-Jews it calls Friends of Zion, honoured through figures such as Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, Orde Wingate, Oskar Schindler, Raul Wallenberg and the Ten Boom family. Since 2015 it has awarded an annual Friends of Zion prize; recipients include George W. Bush (2015), Albert II of Monaco (2016) and Donald Trump (2018).
The museum sits on Rehov Rivlin in the Nahalat Shiv'a neighborhood of downtown Jerusalem, and its four floors are toured in sequence, with the seven exhibits of the main presentation "Here am I" following one another through the periods of history. Presentations are given in 16 languages for international visitors.
The museum building also houses the Indigenous People Embassy in Jerusalem, a site tied to the museum's wider mission. The museum itself was founded by American evangelist Mike Evans and financed by about 7,000 donors worldwide, and its exhibits were made by over 150 Israeli artists.
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