The world’s first interactive museum dedicated to Sephardic history and culture needs between five and ten million dollars to become a reality in the historic centre of Malaga.
The project, a private initiative with public interest, was presented at a private event in Miami organised by Comunidad Judía Internacional, an organisation that supports the Sephardic Heritage Foundation in this project.
Yossi Obadia, one of the promoters of the future museum, said that not even in Israel there is an institution dedicated entirely to the Jews who settled in Spain from the 1st century AD onwards.
It will be a totally digital and interactive museum that will be housed in a building to be constructed in a space ceded by the Malaga City Council and located behind the Picasso Museum and the Roman Theatre, very close to the statue of the Jewish poet and philosopher Shlomo Ibn Gabirol, who lived in Malaga in the 11th century.
The Madrid architect León Benacerraf, founder of the Sephardic Heritage Foundation together with businessman and former FCJE President Isaac Querub, has “gifted” the design of the museum’s headquarters.
MediaPro Exhibitions, which has extensive experience in top-level digital and interactive exhibitions, will be in charge of the museum, according to Obadia.
At the same time , he said that there will be no objects inside the museum, except, as a symbolic element, some keys of the homes in Spain that the Jews took with them when in 1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella forced them to choose between conversion or expulsion.
MediaPro Exhibitions will use virtual reality in part of the museum content to give visitors an immersive experience of Sephardic history and culture.
The project to build the Sephardic museum in Malaga is closely linked to the law that in 2015 gave the Sephardim the possibility of obtaining Spanish nationality, said the head of the development of the Museum of Malaga.
Not only the Malaga City Council supports this project, but also the Malaga Provincial Council and the Andalusian Regional Government, according to Obadia.
