I am an Israeli Jew living in Germany, this is the story of my family, my family’s family, and all those who came before. The story of the Jews of Ashkenaz (Europe) before the second world war is a story many choose to avoid telling - a story I was never told in school, a story which I was left to my own devices to find out.
I cannot write a review about the Jewish Museum in Berlin without telling a little of my family’s history in the region, to explain the context of my point of view. My grandmother’s family had been in Poland for generations and generations, during the 2nd world war, the Nazis sent her family to Warsaw ghetto, and eventually to Auschwitz, where the grand majority of the family was killed. My grandmother and her sister survived, and came to Israel. When her family died, so did her family history. With no one to tell the story of these people, and my grandmother’s inability (or unwillingness) to speak about life before the war, and thousnds upon thousands of survivors reluctant to speak, the story of Jews in the region became merely a whisper.
The Jewish museum in Berlin was difficult for me to get myself to visit. The amount I learned was enough for a lifetime. I found the exhibits to be informative and interesting, but beyond that - I found that the creators of the museum exhibits put in a great amount of effort to bring out the humanity and detail which was part of the Ashkenazi Jewish life both before and during the Holocaust. Some parts of the exhibits made me want to laugh, in appreciation of the irony which was the center of Ashkenazi jewish humor. Some parts of my wanted to burst out in tears of frustration and sadness. In the hours that I spent at the museum, I couldn’t have believed that so many emotions - happiness, excitement, sadness, agression, could surface in such a small timeframe and in such a small space.
It’s hard for me to say I recommend the museum, in such words, becuase I don’t know what it is that I would be recommending. My personal experience is just that - a personal one, and the museum will naturally have a different significance for us all.
With that in mind, one would want to visit the museum for many reasons. Historical purposes, educational purposes, the stunning architechture which plays extremely well with the exhibitions and theme of the museum itself. My recommendation is thus: visit the museum to find out it’s significance for you, and keep your mind open to learn what it has to teach.

Um es kurz zu machen: Eines der besten Museen, die ich je besucht habe. Da stimmte einfach alles: das Gebäude, die Ausstellung. Alles passt wunderbar zueinander, es wird nie langweilig oder banal. Das Gebäude selbst ist ein Beweis dafür, dass man auch moderne Archiktektur spannend machen kann. Die Ausstellung zeigt die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland von der Vergangenheit bis zur Gegenwart und nimmt am Ende sogar aktuelle Fragen auf. Die Ausstellungsstücke sind gut ausgewählt und erläutert. Was ich sehr gut finde: der Holocaust steht nicht im Zentrum der Ausstellung, sondern der Beitrag der Juden zur deutschen Kultur und das Leben in Deutschland.