Torah Animals Fill a Brooklyn Museum

By Lauren F. Friedman July 27, 2010

Noah built an ark. Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch built a Borough Park taxidermy museum in a brownstone and filled it, he claims, with every animal mentioned in the Torah — 350 specimens in all.

An article in The Brooklyn Ink details Torah Animal World, which will be complete once Deutsch puts the finishing touches on an annex for sacrificial animals. (He’s already open for business though and has drawn some 35,000 annual visitors — hordes of Orthodox yeshiva students along with a smattering of Amish and other Christians.)

No one ever would accuse Deutsch of lacking ambition: He also runs the Living Torah Museum, a collection of biblical artifacts, and a Catskills museum full of all of the animals in the Talmud. Next up for Deutsch? A botany museum, with examples of every plant in the Torah.

Rumors of Deutsch’s plan to move Abraham, Isaac and Jacob into the brownstone next door have not been confirmed.

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