ANU – Museum of the Jewish People

Trees shade the paths of Tel Aviv University around you. Students hurry past with backpacks and coffee cups, and the city traffic sounds far away. This campus, in the northern neighbourhood of Ramat Aviv, feels calm and green. Somewhere in this ordinary academic morning stands a museum with a very large ambition. It does not tell the story of one city, one battle, or one king. It tries to tell the story of an entire people, scattered across almost every continent.

The museum is called ANU. The word means "we" in Hebrew. That small pronoun sets the tone for everything inside. This is not a museum about a distant "them" behind glass. It is about a shared identity that millions of people carry, in many languages and many forms. Some visitors arrive as outsiders, curious about Jewish life. Others come looking for their own grandparents. The museum speaks to both, and that is part of what makes it unusual.

The institution is older than its name. It opened in 1978 as Beit Hatfutsot, which means "the House of the Diasporas". The word diaspora describes a people living far from their ancestral homeland. The museum was closely associated with Nahum Goldmann, a long-time leader of the World Jewish Congress. From the start, the idea was bold. Most Jewish communities had left few grand monuments behind. So the museum would tell their story through reconstructions, models, images and ideas, rather than through treasures alone.

The original concept is also linked to Abba Kovner. He was a poet and a former partisan fighter, who resisted the Nazis in the forests of Lithuania during the Second World War. It is worth pausing on that. A man who had seen communities destroyed helped shape a museum about how those communities had lived. The focus was on life, not only on loss. That choice still shapes the building today. You will find the Holocaust here, but it is one chapter within a far longer story.

For decades, Beit Hatfutsot was known for its film strips, dioramas and dim, contemplative halls. Over time, the displays began to feel dated. The museum then went through a long and ambitious renewal. It reopened in 2021 with a new name, new galleries and a much larger exhibition space. The old Diaspora Museum became ANU – Museum of the Jewish People. The change in name matters. The story is no longer framed only around exile. It now includes Israel, the diaspora, and everything in between.

The core exhibition is spread across three floors. Each floor has its own theme and its own pace. It is easy to underestimate how long a visit takes here. The galleries are dense with screens, objects, voices and music. Many people spend half a day and still feel they have only skimmed the surface. So it helps to choose a few themes that interest you, and let yourself slow down there, rather than rushing to see every single display.

One floor is called The Mosaic. It looks at Jewish identity today, in all its variety. Here you meet faces and voices from many countries and backgrounds. There are religious Jews and secular Jews, artists and athletes, comedians and scientists. The galleries touch on food, holidays, language, humour and music. The message is simple. There is no single way to be Jewish. This floor often surprises visitors, because it feels more like a lively conversation than a history lesson.

Another floor, The Journey, follows the long road of Jewish history. It moves across thousands of years and thousands of kilometres. You travel from ancient Babylon to medieval Spain, from the towns of Eastern Europe to communities in Yemen, North Africa, India and Ethiopia. The story includes golden ages and expulsions, migration and return. Notice how often the same pattern repeats. A community settles, builds, contributes to the wider society — and then, too often, must move again.

Now for one of the details that many visitors remember most. The museum holds a collection of detailed scale models of synagogues from around the world. Some of these houses of prayer still stand. Others were destroyed long ago and survive only in drawings and photographs. Look closely at the different styles. One model might resemble a Moorish palace. Another looks like a wooden building from a Polish village. Together, they show how Jewish communities absorbed the architecture of the places where they lived.

The third floor, The Beginning, turns to roots. It explores the ancient foundations of Jewish culture. Here you will find the Bible, the Hebrew language, and the traditions that held a scattered people together over many centuries. This floor asks a quiet but large question. What kept a people connected when they had no shared land, no shared government, and often no shared everyday language? The answers on display are texts, rituals, holidays and memory, passed from parent to child.

Here is a second surprise. ANU is not only a museum. It also keeps large databases on Jewish family names, communities and family history. Many visitors type in a surname and discover where it may have come from, or how it changed as families moved between countries. Some find the name of a town their grandparents never talked about. If you have Jewish roots, or simply a curious mind, this part of the museum can turn a visit into something personal.

The building itself sits on the university campus, and that location feels right. This is a place of study as much as display. School groups, soldiers on educational tours, tourists and local families all pass through the same halls. Listen to the languages around you. You may hear Hebrew, English, Russian, French, Spanish and Amharic, the language of Ethiopia, within a few minutes. In a way, the crowd is part of the exhibition. It shows the story continuing in real time.

Before you leave, take a moment outside. Look back at the museum against the trees and the ordinary rhythm of campus life. Inside, you have travelled across centuries and continents. Out here, students are still walking to their classes. That contrast is the point. The story told inside these walls is not finished. It is carried by people living now, in many countries and many languages. As you walk away, listen once more to that small word at the door — ANU. We.