Ester Muchawsky-Schnapper, a senior curator of Jewish ethnography at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, executed exemplary exhibitions for over three decades in the field of Jewish art and culture. The permanent and changing displays she created are the result of a meticulous and profound research, which often shed light on unfamiliar issues in Jewish culture on its various facets. Her work included research trips to Jewish communities around the world, including countries that do not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, and were accompanied by cultural assets rescue operations. She published many catalogues and scholarly essays, and was a senior partner in shaping the Department of Jewish Art and Culture at the Israel museum and in determining its contents. Among the numerous exhibitions she was responsible for at the Museum are: "The Jews of Gothenburg, Sweden" (1987), "Alsace Jewry-a Rural Community between Tradition and Emancipation" (1991), "The Yemenites Two Thousand Years of Jewish Culture" (2000), and recently
"A World Apart Next Door: Glimpses into the Life of Hasidic Jews" (2012).

For her great contribution to the enrichment of the documentation of the material culture of Jewish communities in Israel and around the world and the enrichment of its research, the jury committee decided to award Ester Muchawsky-Schnapper the 2013 Curator Award.