Joël Cahen has over 30 years of experience leading major Jewish museums. He is currently the CEO of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, overseeing multiple institutions. Previously, he was the Deputy Director-General and Chief Curator of Beit Hatefutsot, the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. He has initiated numerous acclaimed exhibitions focusing on Jewish art, history, and culture at both institutions. Cahen also holds advanced degrees in history and museum management and has advised several other prominent museums.

1. Joël Cahen CURRICULUM VITAE 1
Joël J. Cahen CURRICULUM VITAE January 2015
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
2002-2015 CEO, Jewish Historical Museum, Jewish Cultural Quarter, Amsterdam
In addition to the JHM, responsibilities includethestrategic vision and management of the
Portuguese Synagogue, the Ets Haim Library,and the HollandscheSchouwburgHolocaust
Memorial and are leadingplanningto create a National Shoah Center and Museum.
1990-2002 Deputy Director-General, Chief Curator, BeIt Hatefutsot, the Museum of the Jewish People
in Tel Aviv (formerly also known as The Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora)
where responsibilities included development of all temporary exhibitions and associated
programming includingfundraising.
1990 Adviser for the renewed Core Exhibition, Jewish Museum, New York
1982-1989 Curator for History, Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam
1985-1987 Member renewal team Jewish Historical Museum for the new buidlings
1980-1982 Archivist Jewish Collections Municipal Archives, The Hague
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
2012- Member Scientific Council, WissenschaftlicheFachbeiratdes Haus der Geschichte Baden-
Württemberg, Stuttgart. https://www.hdgbw.de
2008- Member Scientific Council, WissenschaftlicheFachbeiratdes Haus der Geschichte der
Bundesrepublik Deutschland,Bonn. http://www.hdg.de/stiftung
2011- Member Board of JONET, the on-linecommunity for Dutch Jewry. https://jonet.nl
1999-2005 Member Scientific Council,WissenschaftlicheFachbeiratdes Haus der Geschichte Baden-
Württemberg, Stuttgart. https://www.hdgbw.de/
2002-2015 Member Board and thesaurier Menasseh Ben Israel Institutefor Jewish research,
Amsterdam. http://www.mbii.nl
1991-1993 Member (co-founder) Board Polish- Israel CultureFoundation
1993-1999 Board, Institutefor Dutch History, Dinur Institute, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
EXHIBITIONS INITIATED.
Jewish Historical Museum of Amsterdam: 2007—2014
2014 Schoenberg & Kandinsky. Artistic Revolutionaries, the world famous and widely known
composer, but quite unknown skilled painter Arnold Schönberg and the famous artist, Wasily
Kandinsky,stand in closerelation as re-inventors of composingand painting.This exhibition
was initiated as the farewell exhibition for Edward van Voolen, long time curator of the
Jewish Historical Museumand executed in cooperation with several Dutch Museums, private
collectors and the Schönberg Institute in Vienna. A Dutch languagecatalogueaccompanied
the show.

2. Joël Cahen CURRICULUM VITAE 2
2013 Deliciously Jewish, Jews and food. A long time wish,to explain and exhibitthe issueof
kashrutto a broad public and atthe same time give understandingto the particularities,the
tastes and the flavors of the Kitchen in Jewish homes in the Diaspora,cameabout with this
exhibition,opened by Claudia Roden.The show was accompanied by a Dutch language,
cookbook.
2012 William Kentridge Black Box in cooperationwith Deutsche Bank/Deutsche Guggenheim.
Kentridge work dealingwith memory about the pre holocaust,genocidein Namibia around
1900,was brought by us to JHM as a prelude to the kind of works we want to show in the
extension in spe of the HollandscheSchouwburg,HolocaustMemorial.The artistsucceeded
to get the public staringin amazement at his digginginto the memory of this horriblecolonial
past.Cooperation with donor and art collectingDeutscheBank showed a new avenue of
exhibitions and cooperation.
2011 From Dada to Surrealism, Jewish Avant-Garde Artist from Romania 1910-1938 / This was
the firstexhibition devoted to the contribution of the Jewish avant-gardeartists from
Romania,coveringthe period from 1910 till 1945.Itpresents a comprehensive selection of
70 to 80 works,primarily fromRomanian museums and privatecollections,and additionally
from Israeli and Western collections.Theexhibition continued in 2012 to The Israel Museum,
Jerusalem. A planned venue at CJM was blocked by one of the Rumanian lenders.
2010 Daring Patronage: from Chagall to Mondrian / The exhibition focused on three visionary
Jewish artcollectors –Andries van Wezel (1856-1921),WillemWolff Beffie (1880-1950),and
Salomon Slijper (1884-1971) –and included an unprecedented reconstruction of their
exceptional collections. Thethree collectors areexemplarily of Jewish art-lovers activein new
avenues of the arts.
2009-2010 A Master Revealed, Meijer de Haan This exhibition focused on the painter Meijer de Haan
(1852-1895).De Haan send by Theo van Gogh to his contemporary Paul Gauguin,was very
much influenced by Gauguin and became his equal in Pont Aven, nevertheless his small very
strong oeuvre. The exhibition continued in the Musée d’ Orsay in Parisfrom15 March till 20
June 2010 and in the Musée des beaux Arts in Quimper from 8 July 8 till 11 October 2010.
The leadingimage of the exhibition,was later stolen from the Rotterdam Kunsthal and
claimed to be burned,
2007-2008 Modern Masterpieces from Moscow: Russian Jewish artists 1910-1940.The exhibition
aimed to give a nuanced vision of Russian art.Itfocused on the riseand fall of Jewish artists
and the attendant dwindlingof Jewish themes in their work. The exhibition consisted of
works from Tretyakov Gallery and the Bakrushin Theatre Museum in Moscow.
Beit Hatefutsot—the Museumofthe JewishPeople: 1992—2002
1994 Os Judeus Portugueses entre os Descobrimentos e a Diaspora, The Jews of Portugal
between Discoveries and Diaspora. Cooperation between Tel Aviv and Lisbon with Museum
of Modern Art, Fundacao CalousteGulbenkian,Lisbon.
http://museu.gulbenkian.pt/Museu/pt/Inicio
1992-1993 In the Footsteps of Marrano-Jews", Following three Sefardic Jewish Families, the Suassos,
Curiels and Mendes, in East and West, with an accompanying album, "Odyssey of the
Exiles" published by the MOD-publishing house.
1990-1991 "Aliyah 90",The Emigration of Russian and Ethiopian Jews in 1990 to Israel This photo
exhibition featured four photographers with four different viewpoints,Frederick Brenner, a
French anthropologist,Micha Bar Am, Israeli MagnumPress photographer, Michael
Strimban, former Russian Jew now livingin Israel and Doron Bachar,housephotographer of
Beit Hatefutsot; with an accompanyingcatalogue.

3. Joël Cahen CURRICULUM VITAE 3
1991 "Beyond Sambatyon", The Myth of the Lost ten Tribes, August 1991- November 1991,with
an accompanying catalogue, published by Beit Hatefutsot. The exhibition was converted in
1994 into a CD Rom together with Maxima and became a bestseller in English and
Portuguese with over 30.000 copies sold
1991-1992 "Anyos Munchos Y Bueno", Results of a 5-year photo-documentation in Turkey by the
American anthropologistand photographer Lawrence Salzmann, November 1991 - March
1992,with an accompanyingcatalogue,published by the photographer.
1992 In the Land of the Golden Fleece" (after Robert Graves), the Jews of Georgia their History
and their Culture an Historical-Ethnographical exhibition,January 1992 - October 1992,with
an accompanyingAlbum published.
1992 The Jewish World in the eye of the camera, results of the Fifth International Photo contest
of Beit Hatefutsot.
1992-1993 "Sefarad", a special Beit Hatefutsot traveling exhibition on Sefardic History before the
expulsion for traveling in Spain, France and Latin America. Ittoured, Barcelona,Gerona,
Segovia, Geneva, Fribourgand Madrid.
1992 "A Sephardic Itinerary” Photo exhibition of portraits by Frederic Brenner, with an
accompanyingportfolio of Brenner’s work.
1994 "Workers and Revolutionaries", the history of the Jewish Labor Movement" Beit Hatefutsot
from September 1994 till May 1995.English and German cataloguessold out.Also shown in
Hamburg, New York and Frankfurt Main.
1995 Rediscovered Treasures: Judaica Collections from Galicia, from the Museum of
Ethnography and Crafts in Lviv, Ukraine. Exhibition based on the MaxymiliamGoldstein
Collection and other collections fromthe Lviv (Lvov) Museum. Catalogues in Hebrew and
English
1996 Jews in Arab Lands Today Photo documentary exhibition featuring photographs from Frits
Meyst, Zion Ozeri, Micha Bar Am, Robert Lyons Shlomo Taitzand Alex Libac,from Egypt,
Jemen, Tunis,Morocco,Syria and a video installation aboutthe Jewish Community in
Baghdad by Buki Schwartz.
1998-2002 Jews, America a Representation, Frederic Brenner. Elias Harrus,Photographs:Juifs Parmi les
Berberes. Odessa,Jewish writers and intellectuals,with catalogue.Suzon Fuks, Jews on the
Malabar Coast
1996-1997 Blue and White in Color, One Hundred Years since the First Zionist Congress
Additional lobby exhibits, initiated and supervised at BH between 1993—1997:
Wijnanda de Roo, Forgotten Spaces
Stanislaw Markowsky, Jewish Cracow
Shimon Attie, The Writing on the Wall(Berlin)
The Model of the Oranienburgerstrasse Synagogue
Happy New Year, Shanot Tovot from the Judaic Collection, National Library of Poland;
The Battle for Public Opinion, The Dreyfuss Affaire
Serajewo, 1993/4 by Edward Serotta,
Marseilles, Yves Jean-Mougin;
Peter Hunter(Otto Salomon), Winner of the German Press Photo Prize,1997, photographs
in England and Holland

4. Joël Cahen CURRICULUM VITAE 4
JewishHistorical Museumof Amsterdam:1983—1987
1985 Wat stond er in de krant", = “What did the newspaper say about it", 120 years of the New
Israelitic Weekly,the Dutch Jewish Press between 1865 and 1985, participation in special
symposiumon the Dutch Jewish press and writer of the weekly column 'A Dutch Diary',i.e
Hollands Dagboek in the Dutch newspaper NRC- Handelsblad.
1985 Mazzeltof Joodse Gemeente,Celebrating the 350th anniversary of the Ashkenazic Jewish
Community in Amsterdam. A photo exhibition of contemporary Jewish lifein Amsterdam.
1983-1984 Een Verdwenen Wereld, A Vanished World, photographs by Roman Vishniak. Curatorship
and Organization.
1983-1984 The History of Jews in the Mediene (Dutch Provinces)"The History and Culture of the Jews
in the small communities around the Netherlands. In preparation of this exhibition a
research was conducted to create inventories and photograph of all remainingceremonial
objects in 40 Dutch 'Mediene' communities, an index on articles concerning'Mediene'
subjects in the Dutch Jewish press from 1860-1940 was put together and accessed through in
the computer, a accompanyingbook 'De Mediene, De Geschiedenis van het Joodse leven in
de Nederlandse provincie' was published under my editorship with the Meulenhoff/Lands-
hoff company of Amsterdam, the history of 120 'Mediene' communities was compiled
and put in the computer, a TV-film, "Ik kom uitde Mediene",= "I Am from the countryside",
was made together with Willy Lindwer.
SPECIAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
JewishHistorical Museumof Amsterdam:
2012 Digitalization and cataloguing including web accessibility of the Library of Ets
Haim/Montezinos. http://www.etshaim.nl/manuscripten-digitaal Amount raised €1 million
2010-2012 Feasibility study for development of the Hollandsche Schouwburg into a National Shoah
Museum. Amount raised €1,8 million
2008-2010 Planning, renewal and restorations of Portuguese Synagogue Amount raised €10,2 million.
2007-2010 Development master plan Hollandsche Schouwburg Holocaust Museum. Amount raised
€2million
2008-2015 Adapting the Digital Monument Joods Nederland(http://www.joodsmonument.nl ) into
http://www.communityjoodsmonument.nl
2007 Renewal Jewish Historical Museum, including a new permanent Children’s Museum,
Amsterdam Amount raised €7,5 million. http://www.jhmkindermuseum.nl/#/home
1986-1987 Development of the permanent exhibition of the Jewish Historical Museum in its new
facility, in the Ashkenazi Synagogue complex; 'Amsterdam Jewry, its development alongthe
theme of Tsedaka,or Tsedaka as a function of Jewish History’.
Beit Hatefutsot—the Museumofthe JewishPeople:
1997 Technology Master plan 1997 with ThunderWave and Menahem Fogel
1997 Chronosphere renewal, Jeremy Allen and Associates developers, Richard Attenborough
reader

5. Joël Cahen CURRICULUM VITAE 5
1996-1998 The New World Theater Exhibit, Robert Wilson, Paul Schmidt, Paul Kaiser, Jacob Burchardt,
Marc Bennet, Rachel LevDesigner, Emily Bilski consultant curator
1996 Strategic planning: Beit Hatefutsot: Vision Paper for the Board of Directors, 1995;
Guidelines for the Master Plan, 1996
1996 Launching of the first website of Beth Hatefutsoth http://www.bh.org.il together with
Baron Frankal.
Music projects of Beit Hatefutsot’s Feher Music Center with Dr A. Bahat and Prof Dr. Y. Shaked:
CD Berlin Reform Community, CD, Music of the Jews of Firenze, CD, Music of the Benei
Israel, Eliahuu Hanebi, Mokum, Jerusalem of the West
The Musical Tradition of the Ashkenazi Community of Amsterdam
Kamti Lehallel (I Rise in Praise): The Musical Tradition of the Spanish and Portuguese
Jewish Communities of Amsterdam, London and New York
FORMAL EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMENT
1990 Getty Museum Management Institute, today Museum Leadership Institute,
California, USA
1981 Hoger Archief Diploma State Archives School, The Hague
1979-1980 Visiting Scholar Columbia University, New York
1977-1979 Fellow Max Weinreich Center for advanced Jewish Studies, YIVO, New York under
tutorship of Prof Isaiah Trunk
1978 MA History, University of Amsterdam
1970 Undergraduate History Department, University of Amsterdam
1968-1970 Gymnasium Alpha, Beekvliet, Sint Michielsgestel.
Joel Cahen was born in 1948, Vught, The Netherlands. With broad international experiencein all aspects of
museum management, creativedirection,and fundraising,Cahen is fluentin Dutch, Hebrew, German, French
and Yiddish.