THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE JEWS OF AL-ANDALUS

The exhibit highlights the Jews in Al-Andalus, a period of prosperity, tolerance, and integration, before ending with the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Using mixed reality, visitors can explore a recreated medieval synagogue with AR features on-site. A VR version is also available online, enabling remote users to join the guided AR/VR tour and interact with Maimonides’ Al avatar.

Read news article about the exhibition: https://news.miami.edu/stories/2025/02/the-golden-age-of-the-jews-of-al-andalus.html

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

“The Golden Age of the Jews of Al-Andalus” is a curated exhibition that invites visitors to explore the daily life of Jews in the 11th-century Iberian Peninsula through detailed facsimiles, virtual reproductions, images, and re-creations. This society produced notable figures, such as the diplomat Ibn Shaprut, the poets Ibn Gabirol and Judah Halevi, and the thinker Maimonides, all of whom contributed to a rich cultural heritage that endures to this day.

Visitors can experience a reconstructed medieval synagogue on-site through mixed reality, utilizing augmented reality (AR) features. A virtual reality version is also available online, enabling users to join the guided AR tour and interact with an AI avatar of Maimonides.

A bilingual Spanish-English traveling exhibition, “The Golden Age” was originally curated by José Martínez Delgado, a professor at the University of Granada. The installation on view on the first floor of the Otto G. Richter Library was organized by Centro Sefarad-Israel in collaboration with several organizations, including the Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies, the George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies, and the Libraries at the University of Miami.