I and two other Museology students at the University of Haifa are
working on an assignment on the topic of establishing a museum for
Ethiopian Jews. (There are plans to set up such a museum, but the museum
itself does not yet exist: the process has run into various bureaucratic
and other difficulties.)

The Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel has undergone profound
physical, cultural and psychological traumas in the process of being
transplanted from Ethiopia to Israel.  These include: deaths of
thousands and separation of families during the long Trek via the
refugee-camps in Sudan in the 1980s;  doubts as to their "Jewishness"
expressed by the Israel Chief Rabbinate and others, which struck to the
very heart of their self-identity, and undermined the authority of their
traditional religious leaders, the "Qessotch";  the culture-shock of a
traditional, predominantly rural peasant society from remote highland
villages of Ethiopia encountering a modern and largely secular Israeli
society;  geographic dispersion  and the breakdown of traditional
extended-family and kinship patterns;  changing roles and conflicts
within the family and between younger and older generations;
educational difficulties and a growing rate of school dropouts and
juvenile delinquency;  suicides during Army-service;  feelings of
rootlessness and alienation (especially among the youth), racial
discrimination  (including the notorious blood-donation scandal when
blood donated by Ethiopians was tactlessly thrown away en masse for fear
it might contain Aids) .......   All of these have profoundly affected
their community pride, sense of identity and self-esteem.

One idea we wish to develop in our assignment is that of "the museum as
a vehicle for community empowerment".  (We got this phrase from the
title of Nancy J. Fuller's article on the Ak-Chin Indian Community
Ecomuseum Project, chapter 12 of "Museums and Communities" ed. Karp,
Kreamer and Lavine.)  The article discusses the "ecomuseum concept":
quote follows  (my apologies for length, but it all seems important and
very relevant to our assignment):

[p.328] "An ecomuseum is an agent for managing change that links
education, culture, and power. It is sometimes called a neighborhood
museum or a street museum. The approach is both a framework for
examining the nature and structure of cultural institutions and a
process for democratizing them. It extends the mission of a museum to
include responsibility for human dignity. The methodology, based on
educational and psychological concepts of lifelong learning and
life-stage development, seeks to put in place those conditions that
enable communities to learn about themselves and their needs, and to act
upon that knowledge. The ecomuseum concept establishes a role for the
museum as a mediator in the process of cultural transition.

Ecomuseums are based on the belief that museums and communities should
be related to the whole of life. They are concerned with integrating the
family home with other aspects of the community, such as the natural
environment, economics, and social relationships. Ecomuseums are
community learning centers that link the past with the present as a
strategy to deal with the future needs of that particular society. Their
activities and collections reflect what is important to the community,
not necessarily conforming to mainstream values and interpretations.
Rene Rivard, a proponent of the approach, says that an ecomuseurn is a
"process [that] begins with what is known by the people--the collective
memory--and sees what events and objects are linked to these ideas." The
mission is to develop community autonomy and identity. Rather than
serving as a storehouse or a temple, both of which isolate objects from
ordinary people and require professional assistance for access and
understanding, an ecomuseum recognizes the importance of culture in the
development of self-identity and its role in helping a community adjust
to rapid change. The ecomuseum thus becomes a tool for the economic,
social, and political growth and development of the society from which
it springs."

I searched for ecomuseum sites on the Web, but all those I found seem to
belong to geographic locations of historical or natural-environmental
interest.  Nevertheless, we feel the basic ideas quoted above are very
applicable to the situation of the Ethiopian Jewish community.

We would be very grateful for comments.  Can anyone suggest other
resources, or examples of the role of museums in relation to traditional
immigrant communities undergoing rapid social change?

I am travelling to England soon: will be in London from 24th June to 4th
July, then in Glasgow 4th-18th July to attend Summer School on
Digitisation; returning to Israel 21st July.  Any suggestions for
contacts in Britain?

Thank you.

Margaret Hayon
Student of Museology, University of Haifa, Israel
and researcher of Ethiopian Jewish heritage.