Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance

Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance

"Even though Frank Gehry is well-known for his original architectural work, he has his detractors. A common criticism is that his buildings do not seem to belong in their surroundings ’organically’. This could not be more true than in the case of the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem.

"The museum, being built atop an ancient Muslim cemetery, is a project of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, whose founder Rabbi Marvin Hier envisions the museum as a "great landmark promoting the principles of mutual respect and social responsibility." The site had been a cemetery for at least one thousand years, and building required the excavation of peoples’ remains."

Criticism

 * Saree Makdisi, "A Museum of Intolerance in Jerusalem" 2009.
 * “The Architecture of Erasure,” forthcoming in Critical Inquiry.
 * “A Racialized Space: Social Engineering in Jerusalem,” in Contemporary Arab Affairs, vol. 2, no. 4 (October-December, 2009), pp. 566-75.