Opposite the building ensemble, the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin was built – also after a design by Libeskind – in 2011/2012 in the former flower market hall.

[1] The first Jewish Museum in Berlin was founded on 24 January 1933, under the leadership of Karl Schwartz, six days before the Nazis officially gained power.

[3] To reflect this focus on living history, the entrance hall of the museum both contained busts of prominent German Jews, such as Moses Mendelssohn and Abraham Geiger, and also a number of works by contemporary Jewish artists such as Arnold Zadikow and Lesser Ury.

[5] In 1988, the Berlin government announced an anonymous competition for the new museum's design, with a jury chaired by Josef Paul Kleihues.

[6] A year later, Daniel Libeskind's design was chosen from among 189 submissions[7] by the committee for what was then planned as a "Jewish Department" for the Berlin Museum.

While other entrants proposed cool, neutral spaces, Libeskind offered a radical, zigzag design, which earned the nickname "Blitz" ("Lightning").

[12][14] In recent years, Libeskind has designed two structural extensions: a covering made of glass and steel for the "Kollegienhaus" courtyard (2007),[15] and the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy of the Jewish Museum in a rectangular, 250 m2 (2,700 sq ft) 1960s flower market hall on the opposite side of the street (2012).

Covering more than 3,500 square meters, it tells the story of Jews in Germany from their beginnings to the present day from a Jewish perspective.

The exhibition is divided into five historical chapters spanning from the beginnings of Jewish life in Ashkenaz, through the emancipation movement, the Enlightenment, and its failure, to the present.

The largest space is dedicated to National Socialism and the chapter After 1945, where topics such as restitution and reparation, the relationship to Israel and Russian-speaking immigration from 1990 onwards are the central themes.

Eight thematic rooms deal with religious aspects of Judaism and its lived practice, with the museum's family collections, and with art and music.

In addition to original objects, the exhibition presents a wide variety of audio-visual media, virtual reality, art and interactive games.

The Baroque period was regarded through the lens of Glikl bas Judah Leib (1646–1724, also known as Glückel von Hameln), who left a diary detailing her life as a Jewish business woman in Hamburg.

The intellectual and personal legacies of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) were next; both figures were flanked by depictions of Jews in court and country.

The Age of Emancipation in the nineteenth century was presented as a time of optimism, achievement and prosperity, though setbacks and disappointments were displayed as well.

30 Artists' Notion of Home (2011–2012); Kosher & Co: On Food and Religion (2009–2010); Looting and Restitution: Jewish-Owned Cultural Artifacts from 1933 to the Present (2008–2009); Typical!

: Clichés about Jews and Others (2008); Home and Exile: Jewish Emigration from Germany since 1933 (2006–2007); Chrismukkah: Stories of Christmas and Hanukkah (2005–2006); 10+5=God (2004); and Counterpoint: The Architecture of Daniel Libeskind (2003).

The shape of the black glass bodies refers to the "voids," the empty spaces made of concrete in Daniel Libeskind's museum architecture.

The LBI has its principal office in New York and holds the most comprehensive collection of materials on the history of Jews in Germany, Austria, and other German-speaking areas in Central Europe of the last 300 years – including about one million documents such as local authority records, personal documents, correspondence, a photo archive as well as numerous testimonies from religious, social, cultural, intellectual, political, and economic life.

In the course of planning a new permanent exhibition, the Jewish Museum decided not to continue operating the Learning Center with its technical equipment after more than 15 successful years.

[citation needed] The Jewish Museum Berlin Foundation receives an annual grant from the funds of the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media; this covers around three-quarters of its total budget.