TV chef Nigella Lawson gets a taste of the new £10m Jewish Museum

Published: 18 March 2010
by DAN CARRIER

“IT is a museum for everyone, a celebration of the diversity of Britain today,” exclaimed TV chef Nigella Lawson as she opened the doors to Camden Town’s new £10million Jewish Museum on Tuesday.

Lawson, who was joined by BBC creative director Alan Yentob, toured the museum that offers visitors the chance to take part in Yiddish karaoke, visit an East End tailor’s shop and even play with a doll’s house version of a synagogue complete with Star Wars figure-style rabbis that illustrates different strains of the religious faith, ranging from orthodox to liberal.

But as well as entertaining and educating, the museum has a serious message: the massive benefits Britain has reaped from being a nation that offers a haven to immigrants.

Lawson, daughter of Margaret Thatcher’s former chancellor Nigel, recently explored her roots in the documentary Who Do You Think You Are? 

She heard that 93 per cent of schoolchildren who visited the museum before its four-year revamp were not Jewish – and that its aims were broader than merely telling the ­story of British Judaism.  

She said: “What is important is what this museum says about the story of immigration. The language used to describe Jewish refugees was also used for Black and Asian people. These stories are woven into the fabric of our country. Many new immigrants are seen at an insurmountable disadvantage – the Jewish story tells of how great immigration can be. Where you have started off does not always indicate where you will end up. This is not in a material sense, but it is about feeling part of a society.”

Ms Lawson also praised the design: “There is such quality of light when you walk around here. You feel you are in some way being illuminated. It is in no way like a dark and dusty museum.” 

In one section, showing the importance of communal feasts in Jewish culture, air vents waft the scent of freshly cooked chicken soup over ­visitors. Ms Lawson joked: “There is not a Jewish person who is not an expert in chicken soup,” and said that she included a recipe for it in a  recent show, adding: “It serves four... or eight gentiles.”

Mr Yentob is a patron of the museum, which was founded in 1932. It moved from its original Bloomsbury base in 1994 to Albert Street. But as the collection grew, the museum’s board bought a Victorian piano factory behind the Georgian terraced house the museum had moved to. The Heritage Lottery Fund contributed more than £4m, while charities and bodies gave grants, and a portion came from individual donations.

Mr Yentob has watched the project develop. He said: “It has exceeded our expectations. Here is a new national museum that reaches out to all communities, both secular and religious, and tells a riveting story of the nation’s oldest minority group in the kind of human detail which promises to enthral.”

Director Rickie Burman added: “We hope we have ­created a museum that is welcoming to everybody and will help build interfaith connections and understanding.”