Paul Calvert spoke with Amanda Weiss, the Director of Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, a museum that believes that the future of mankind has its roots in the past and only through understanding our history can we build a better future.

Amanda Weiss

Paul: What time frame does the museum go through?

Amanda: We start at the earliest beginnings of civilisation and we go into early Christianity. We cover Roman Judea and the Babylonian Talmud period; basically about 600 years after the Common Era. We actually say that we go to almost 1000, because we do have some pieces that go a little bit later, but the meat of the collection really takes us through the beginning of Christianity. We have a tour that takes you from the footsteps of Abraham, to Jesus and brings us into Jerusalem at the Second Temple Period, which is of course the time when Jesus as a Rabbi was preaching here.

Paul: So will the museum open up your Bible, as you go through and see the different things and hear what the tour guides are saying?

Amanda: Absolutely. As a matter of fact we have had many religious leaders come through with a Bible in hand to guide here, but also as you are going through as a visitor, there are biblical quotes in all of the galleries that really put into context the pieces you are looking at. For English we use the King James Version and all the biblical quotes are in English, Hebrew and Arabic.

Paul: And what can people see as they go through the exhibition?

Amanda: What you see is a remarkable collection of antiquities treasures that are the remnants of our ancestors and how they lived; from jewellery, to tablets with ancient writing on them that give you insights into the way people lived. There is also the development of writing and we have one entire gallery that's all about how we got to the alphabet. How did we go from ancient kunai form in hieroglyphics to writing the ABC's that we use today in the Latin speaking world? We also have the development of trade and commerce and religious belief.

We go from the time of Abraham, through the period of the exodus in ancient Egypt and into Jerusalem during the First Temple period. It was King David that came to the City of David as it is called here in Jerusalem and settled it as his first capital in the Judean State, after Hebron. He spent seven years in Hebron and then he came to Jerusalem and Jerusalem since that time, for over 3000 years, has remained the capital of the Jewish State.

Elie Borowski

Paul: You also do lectures here as well don't you?

Amanda: We do. We have lectures here every Wednesday evening. We do scholarly seminars on specific topics. We have programmes for families and children. We have thousands of visitors here a year that come through the museum for a wide variety of programmes and we have a website that keeps people up to date with what is going on in the museum. We are in the centre of Jerusalem, right by the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament and the Israel Museum and the Shrine of the Book, in what is known as Museum Row. We are open every single day of the week and we have a great audio guide for people to come on their own, if they don't want to come with a group tour. We have guided tours every single day, except for Saturdays, that are free with entrance to the museum. So we invite everyone to come to the Bible Lands Museum. We are open on Shabbat, on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, but our gift shop is closed. That is a terrible thing to miss out on if you are coming to the museum, because it is really wonderful and definitely worth making a stop off for.

Paul: And you have weekend family fun. Is the museum very important for children as well?

Amanda: Absolutely. We have a number of different activities for children. We have some published materials that parents and children can take together and go through. We have one that's in English as well called Shamshi in the footsteps of the Bible, where you basically walk through with an animated cartoon booklet and that's quite entertaining and educational for parents and children. We also have treasure hunts and things that we set up through the galleries at different times and on all the main holidays here in Israel, including during the summer when children are off school. We have programmes for families going on and they are always different and always include creative art workshops and things that get people excited and enjoying learning new things.

Paul: Do you promote Arabs and Jews together?

Amanda: We do very much so. All of our exhibitions are tri-lingual in that the material is also available in Arabic. We have guided tours in Arabic for schools in particular. Unfortunately we don't have major tours for Arab adults. Maybe one day there will be peace in the Middle East and we will be flooded with them. We have an Arab education department and we also have co-existence education bringing Arab and Jewish children together and their teachers and parents, because we believe very strongly in our shared common heritage in this region. If we understand our history, then we can build a better future. That's actually the motto of the Bible Lands Museum and of Elie Borowski, the Founder, that the future of mankind has its roots in the past and only through understanding our history can we build a better future.

Paul: And you even have Bar Mitzvahs here as well don't you?