JUDEO-ALSACIAN MUSEUM
28 aout 2023
2012 Exhibition: Children's Views of Human Rights
The idea was to teach, inform and educate young people about human rights. To appropriate them, the association "Regards d'Enfants" organizes an annual competition for European students aged 7 to 17. It is these competitions which took place over five years that the association presents at the Judeo-Alsatian Museum.
After "Draw me the Rights of Man", "Build me the Rights of Man", "Poetise me the Rights of Man", "Photograph me the Rights of Man", this year the theme is: "Tell me about Human Rights".
The exhibition :
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Teaching children human rights can be a scary adventure. Because nothing is more difficult than to share values that we would like to be universal, but which are very often trampled on. It is this bet that the association "Regards d'Enfants" has taken up for seven years. A bet that pays off. Today the children who have become ambassadors and therefore bearers of the message, continue the transmission, through this exhibition.
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It is these testimonies given by school children that the association "Regards d'Enfants" presents to you in this exhibition.
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Word from the Mayor:
Our city of Bouxwiller is pleased to host the exhibition Regards d'Enfants on Human Rights in the premises of the Judeo-Alsatian Museum.
We wanted to offer the children and adults of our municipality, both in school and family settings, the achievements of the Young Europeans, appointed Ambassadors of Human Rights.
The purpose of this event is to raise awareness and reflect on subjects such as Human Rights, citizenship, Respect and Listening to others, regardless of their origin and culture.
What a beautiful symbol this exhibition in this unique museum which traces the history of the Jews from the Middle Ages to the present day.
This museum is managed by the Association des Friends of the Judeo-Alsacien Museum and carried by its tireless president, who knows how to captivate his audience and transmit his passion and his to know.
Danielle Buchi
Mayor of Bouxwiller
Gilbert Weil's words:
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The Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg (1215–1293), one of the most eminent Jewish "decision makers" of the Middle Ages, spent – alas – long years in Alsace. The Judeo-Alsatian Museum has also reserved a place for it on its picture rails.
Far ahead of his time, he proclaimed that, "all power having its source in the individuals constituting the collectivity", Jewish communities should be administered by members elected by the majority, rich or poor, all equal….
That's not all ! For him, the sovereign assembly did not have unlimited powers. It could not encroach on "the imprescriptible rights" of each individual. Like freedom of thought - even if it deviated from the beliefs proclaimed by Judaism -, freedom of speech, freedom of choice​ by parents of the education of their children, etc. He also denied the community the right to interfere in the life of everyone, in his home... In short, Rabbi Meir had just founded the principle of "Human Rights"!
He took it badly, Emperor Rodolphe 1st of Habsburg, informed, quickly understood the danger, for his regime, of these new ideas. The Rebbe, arrested in Italy while trying to flee to the Holy Land, spent the rest of his life in prison, in the fort of Ensisheim, near Colmar...
Much later, Fustel de Coulanges, well known to the people of Strasbourg, sought to make these ideas triumph, against the authoritarian abuses of the States.
Even very young children can understand the Rebbe's principles. Our Museum gives them the opportunity to make them think, to talk about it - to make them future responsible citizens, respectful of the sacred rights of every human being. We therefore welcomed the exhibition proposed to you with joy: it uses the creativity of the child or adolescent to root the same message.
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Gilbert Weill
President of the AMJAB and designer of the museum