April 4, 2013

THE HAGUE (JTA) — Holland’s Jewish Historical Museum won a $130,000 prize for finishing first in the country’s national museum contest for 2013.

The Jewish museum, which was established in 1932, received 40 percent of the popular vote in the online competition among four museums. Some 29,000 people voted through the contest’s website, according to a report Thursday on Amsterdam’s AT5 television station.

The Jewish museum received almost double the votes that went to the second most popular museum — The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.

The four finalists for the 2013 Museum Prize — the most prestigious public prize in Holland’s developed museum scene — were selected by a panel of experts out of a list of 43 nominations. In 2013, the panel accepted nominations for museums that “best represented a group or community.”

One of the reasons the Jewish museum was popular with voters is a website it set up which contains a database meant to help Jewish families trace their genealogies and reconnect with lost members. 

The cash prize will be given to the Jewish museum by the Bernhard Culture Fund and BankGiro Loterij, an initiative for the promotion of the arts in the Netherlands.

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