Skirball Cultural Center

Skirball Cultural Center Review

With a mission of exhibiting the connections "between four thousand years of Jewish heritage and the vitality of American democratic ideals," this Jewish cultural institution sits, grand in scale, atop the Santa Monica Mountains. Within it traces Jewish life including immigration to resettlement into America in a rotating exhibit "Visions and Values: Jewish Life from Antiquity to America." Twelve galleries use artifacts, building reconstructions, and multimedia installations. Highlights include a large collection of Judaica and a two-thirds-size replica of the torch of the Statue of Liberty. The Center also hosts special lectures and performances that examine the culture of our times. A big draw is the Noah's Ark interactive exhibit where children are invited to become "Noah" as they join the animals in generating a rainstorm, boarding the Ark, and discovering how to live in harmony with each other as they recreate this famous story using their own imagination.