News
TRH visit the Jewish Museum to celebrate its 75th anniversary
13th February 2007
The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall visited the Jewish Museum in London today to celebrate the organisation’s 75th birthday.
Their Royal Highnesses were given a guided tour of the museum in Camden, which was founded in 1932 and tells the story of Jewish life in Britain.
The Prince became Patron of the museum last year and visited its Finchley site in June 2006, meeting Auschwitz survivor Leon Greenman.
Upon arrival, Their Royal Highnesses greeted senior staff, volunteers and schoolchildren waving Union flags.
The Duchess smiled broadly and said thank you as she bent down to receive a bouquet of flowers from Madeline Thomas from the nearby St Mary and St Pancras Church of England Primary School in Euston.
The Prince was presented with a piece of art work - a framed fleur de lisle-style print - created by the schoolchildren.
Inside the museum Their Royal Highnesses listened intently as Sandra Joseph, an adolescent psychotherapist, talked them through the 'Champion of the Child - Janusz Korczak' exhibition which tells the inspiring story of a pioneering Polish Jewish doctor, writer and educator who was a leading advocate for children’s rights and devoted himself to their needs and plight, regardless of nationality and religion.
Dr Korczak ran a Jewish orphanage in the ghetto of Warsaw, Poland, during the German occupation.
In August 1942, he was forced to gather the 200 orphans in his care to report for deportation but chose to join the children on the train which was to take them to the Treblinka concentration camp rather than abandon them.
Mrs Joseph presented The Prince and The Duchess with books she has written based on Korczak's writing.
The Prince and The Duchess heard about the Museum’s exciting new development project, for which it has been awarded a development grant and an approval in principle totalling £4.2 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The project will triple the space available at the Camden Town site, combining the Finchley museum with the existing site and creating enlarged exhibition galleries, new education facilities, a state-of-the-art auditorium, hands-on displays for children and a café.
Their Royal Highnesses got another chance to chat with the primary school children when they watched them taking part in a project about the Jewish Shabbat - the Hebrew word for Sabbath.
The Prince and The Duchess watched as the youngsters made Kiddush cups - decorative wine glasses used during Shabbat.
As the children drew designs on the glassware and then coloured them in, The Duchess bent down to ask one group "How's it going?" and, as one girl held up her effort, Her Royal Highness smiled and said: "That looks brilliant."
Their Royal Highnesses then watched a short drama piece performed by the children about slavery and freedom.
They both beamed as the children sang them a song based on the words "Shabbat shalom" - a Jewish greeting said on the Sabbath.
The last exhibit visited by Their Royal Highnesses was the museum's world renowned collection of religious artefacts from Jewish synagogues over the centuries, some dating back to the early 18th Century.
Their Royal Highnesses spent a number of minutes looking at an ornately carved, painted wooden ark used to hold the Torah and made in Italy in the 16th century.
The Prince and The Duchess left the museum after a short private reception with senior members of staff.
As they left, The Duchess was presented with two bouquets of flowers from Chinese students Su Ke, 13, from Beijing, and Zhu Ruo Tong, 16, from Shen Yang who were visiting the UK on a school exchange programme.
The Chinese students looked delighted after the presentation and Su said: "We are so happy, we were just pleased to see them and give The Duchess the flowers."