The existence and the work done in our Museum are now clearly recognized by the tourist and scientific bodies of the city and internationally. Recently, a 40% increase in visitor numbers has been observed, demonstrating that the Museum is now an essential stop for a large number of visitors to our city. Particularly important for the Museum’s progress is the completion of the work on the new wing, which includes an exhibition space, a screening and events area and a space dedicated to historical documentation and research. It is worth noting that the new exhibition space has been dedicated to the memory of Andreas Sefichas, who was President of the I.C.Th. for many years.
The space offers the possibility of organizing temporary exhibitions alongside the exhibition of the Museum’s permanent collections. At the same time, the Museum has continued and is completing the first phase of scientific research to create a tool available to historical research and any other interested parties, with the aim of reconstructing the set of Jewish and mixed companies/individual businesses, highlighting Jewish entrepreneurship as a constituent part of the general economic activity in Thessaloniki during the first half of the 20th century and preserving part of the collective historical memory of the Jews of Thessaloniki. This phase includes the recording and documentation of approximately 15,000 photographic images of documents (out of a total of 25,000) relating to the section Companies / Individual Enterprises, which come from the archives and collections of public institutions of our city and private individuals. The results of this research will be accessible to all interested parties through the operation of a website, where the database with all relevant data will be posted.
Everyone will be able to tour this place and look for evidence of the creation and development over time of a significant part of the Jewish businesses that marked the history of our city. Thus we will have access to constituent documents, correspondence, advertisements and other details of businesses of previous generations, the names of some of which we know as their fame accompanies us to our own day.
The importance of this project is recognised by the academic community on the one hand, and by organisations working for the preservation of the collective historical memory of the Jews of Thessaloniki on the other, such as the representative of the Claims Conference, Mrs Elvira Glueck, who visited the Museum and expressed her enthusiasm after being briefed on the project by our scientific team. In addition, bodies of the “Task Force for International Cooperation on Education, Holocaust, Memory and Research” are considering the possibility of including this project in the field of research and documentation on Holocaust remembrance.
More and more schools in Thessaloniki and the wider region, as well as in Athens, are responding to the Museum’s educational programmes, which are aimed at students from the 5th grade to the 2nd grade.
Finally, special mention should be made of the completion of the cataloguing of the 1694 volumes included in the Museum’s library and the conservation of a significant volume of books of exceptional importance and historical value.