Jews, Museums, And National Identities‪.‬

The antidote to hatred in the heart, the source of violence, is tolerance (The Dalai Lama). The existence of a number of new European Jewish museums offers an opportunity to examine how tolerance for others -- Jews for different kinds of Jews, Jews for non-Jews, and non-Jews for Jews -- is enacted at particular historical moments. Tolerance has different meanings. The most common interpretation is recognition of the existence of the Other. A more active form of tolerance is inviting the Other into one's sphere, making literal and psychic space for the Other, in some way, consciously incorporating the Other. The more active form of tolerance involves an ongoing and ever-changing mixture of negotiation, co-habitation and integration. It also involves a willingness to abandon myths of self-representation and the construction of the Other as enemy, evil, or extraneous(1).