In recognition of May as Jewish American Heritage Month, Moment is delighted to present, in parnership with the Jewish American Heritage Month Coalition, our second annual Jewish American Heritage Guide. Peruse it and discover how Jewish culture and values—and Jews—have helped make the United States what it is today. Along the way, you’ll discover the inside stories of many fascinating American communities.—Diana Cohen Altman

“Jews throughout the Union have taken fate into their own hands by strengthening and supporting [this nation] together with their fellow citizens.”—Sampson Simson from his 1800 valedictory address at Columbia College

A prominent New York lawyer and philanthropist, Sampson Simson (1780-1857) invoked the prophet Isaiah in projecting a future for Jews in America. Should, he claimed, a spirit of genuine “love and unity” prevail in the nation, “then shall the Earth be filled with knowledge [of the Lord] as the waters cover the sea.” Nearly two centuries later, in 1981, Moment Magazine published a revealing interview with one of Simson’s most accomplished successors, Jacob Rader Marcus (1896-1995). By then known as the dean of American Jewish historians, Marcus elaborated on his belief that Simson’s hopes had indeed been realized. He maintained that Jewish Americans had “strengthened and supported” this nation by creating a “synthesis” of American and Jewish cultures. Marcus noted that while Jews constituted a “relatively small group” in the United States, they had already demonstrated “a tremendous influence” on the nation’s civic development. He believed that this pattern of Jewish contributions to the nation’s greater good would continue. Like Simson before him, Marcus believed that Jews consciously fostered a society built on “love and unity” so that America would remain a beacon of hope in a troubled world. A deep-seated conviction in helping to advance the nation unquestionably has shaped the course of Jewish American heritage. President Barack Obama noted this trend in his 2009 proclamation of Jewish American Heritage Month, as follows: “Across the Nation every day, [Jewish] individuals emulate their forebears by seeking to perform mitzvot (‘good deed[s]’).” —Gary P. Zola, Executive Director of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and Professor of the American Jewish Experience at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio

MUSEUMS, ARCHIVES AND HISTORICAL SOCIETIES: A SELECTED LIST
Click here to read about Jewish American Roadside Attractions

UNITED STATES:

NORTHEAST/MID-ATLANTIC

Congregation Kehila Kedosha Janina

Neither Ashkenazi nor Sephardi, the Romaniote Jews of Greece claim a direct link to the Jews of the Roman Empire. In the early 20th century, Romaniotes from the town of Ioannina landed in New York’s Lower East Side, in what is now Chinatown. Here they proudly carried on their own unique culture and Greek dialect (Yevanic), flavored by centuries of interaction with Ottoman, Greek, Sephardi and other neighbors. The congregation has restored the sanctuary and the distinctive “East-Meets-West” furnishings. An exhibition entitled Something Old, Something New reflects on weddings in Greece and within New York’s Greek-Jewish communities, particularly those from Romaniote heyday, a time referred to as “sweetly remembered.”

280 Broome Street, New York, NY, kkjsm.org

National Museum of American Jewish History

As of November 2010, families visiting the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall will have a convenient opportunity to explore Jewish contributions to the American experiment. Curated by a team led by museum historian and deputy director of programming Dr. Josh Perelman, the now 100,000-square-foot museum describes itself as “the only museum dedicated to chronicling the American Jewish experience.” Three exhibit floors will include a hall of fame and interpretive displays featuring some of the museum’s 20,000 artifacts. The Dreams of Freedom gallery will highlight personal objects that immigrants brought with them to America—relics of the tough emotional decisions they had to make. On the same floor, military service items and other objects will document Jewish involvement in World War I, which constituted as much as five percent of the war effort. Among the items displayed will be the uniform worn by Sergeant Irving Berlin.

55 North 5th Street, Philadelphia, PA, nmajh.org

The Jewish Museum of Maryland

The museum makes it possible for a visitor to see and feel the Jewish life that filled the streets of downtown Baltimore 100 years ago. The temporary exhibition, Voices of Lombard Street: A Century of Change in East Baltimore, illustrates how a kosher market and row-house community was transformed into a true ethnic neighborhood. Ritual artifacts in the two restored synagogues under the museum’s stewardship bear witness to the immigrants’ desire to practice old traditions while adapting to the new. Hands-on activities for children help them better understand immigrants’ lives.

Herbert Bearman Campus, 15 Lloyd Street Baltimore, MD, jshm.org

American Jewish Historical Society

Since 1892, the AJHS has been amassing an archive of Jewish material in the fields of education, philanthropy, science, sports, business and the arts, making it “the oldest national ethnic historical organization.” Some of the society’s more than 20 million artifacts can be seen in traveling exhibitions, including From Haven to Home. Visitors to the Center for Jewish History in New York can see digitized versions. Those in Boston are able to follow the documentary trail of Jewish life in the greater Boston area, from the records of a well-known rabbi, Albert I. Gordon, to the Rabb Family/Stop ‘n Shop archive. The society’s astounding collection includes the handwritten original of Emma Lazarus’ poem The New Colossus, which is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty.

The American Jewish Historical Society at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY, ajhs.org

The Wyner Center of the American Jewish Historical Society, 160 Herrick Road Newton Centre, MA, ajhsboston.org

SOUTH

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum

The mission of the museum, established in 1996, speaks not only of Jewish culture but also of diversity and social justice. Its signature exhibitions are Creating Community: The Jews of Atlanta from 1845 to the Present and Absence of Humanity: The Holocaust Years, which focuses on the stories of Atlanta-area Holocaust survivors. Designers juxtaposed the two exhibitions so that the cultural survival of Atlanta’s Jewish community trumps the darkest hours portrayed. The museum has a fascinating traveling exhibition, Women of Valor: The Legacy Quilt, which illustrates the efforts of southern Jewish women to stand up to lynching and other mistreatment of African Americans.

1440 Spring St. NW, Atlanta, GA, thebreman.org

MIDWEST

Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage

Visitors to the Maltz Museum, founded in 2005, consistently remark about the building’s design. A surrounding wall of golden Jerusalem limestone gives it the appearance of an ancient Jewish site rising from the Earth. This construct is an appropriate starting point from which to tell the little known stories of the Jewish families of Cleveland. Many visitors are surprised to learn the mere fact that Ohio has retained a sizeable and active Jewish population. Featured displays include They’ve Arrived, Wonderland (about Ohio’s Jewish entertainers, narrated by a state native, actor Joel Grey) and To Serve, about Jewish Ohioans in the military. The museum also includes Temple-Tifereth Israel Gallery, an internationally known Judaica collection.

2929 Richmond Road, Beachwood, OH, maltzmuseum.org

Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center

Skokie is said at one time to have been home to the largest Holocaust-survivor population in the United States. Many people remember the controversy ignited in 1977 and 1978 when members of the Illinois chapter of the National Socialist Party of America sought to march in Skokie. The American Civil Liberties Union defended their right to march, a position that polarized the American-Jewish community. The museum’s existence dates to the controversy: Founded by activists, it is a call to action against bigotry in all its forms. Museum activities teach children how to be an “upstander” rather than a “bystander.”

9603 Woods Drive, Skokie, IL, ilholocaustmuseum.org

Kansas City Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art/The Epsten Gallery/Museum Without Walls

This museum has been “connecting communities and generations through the arts” since 1991. Its staff organizes exhibits at the museum’s Epsten Gallery on the grounds of the Village Shalom continuum-care campus. Epsten exhibits and programs elicit interaction—the result of fresh, innovative art and artists who have been given the freedom to explore their inner creativity. The museum reaches beyond the city into the prairie and beyond with its Museum Without Walls.

Epsten Gallery at Village Shalom, 5500 W. 123rd Street, Overland Park, KS, kcjmca.org

WEST

Oregon Jewish Museum

Situated in an aging storefront in Portland’s Old Town, this museum started out as a historical society. Sparked in the 1970s by Portland’s first urban renewal project, the museum seeks to preserve the history of one of Oregon’s oldest immigrant groups. Exhibits include oral histories of elderly Jewish residents who were displaced from “old South Portland,” a place where Yiddish could be heard in the streets.

1953 Northwest Kearney Street, Portland, OR, ojm.org

CANADA

The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre

After World War II, Montreal accepted the world’s third-largest number of Holocaust survivors, after Israel and New York City. The Centre features videotaped testimonies interspersed with historical footage—a body of Holocaust testimony largely unwitnessed elsewhere. Archival videos and photographs also examine Jewish life in Europe and North Africa before and during the war, and life in Montreal after immigration. Rescued personal artifacts, from identity cards stamped “J” for Jewish to objects once hidden in concentration camps add a stark third dimension. You’ll learn how non-Jewish Canadians reacted to the survivors.

5151 Chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine (Cummings House), Montréal, Québec, mhmc.ca/en

ARCHIVE

The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives

Established in 1947 in the aftermath of the Holocaust, the JRMC, on the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute, houses tens of millions of archival materials focused on the records of American Jewish personalities and institutions, of American Reform Judaism, of American-Jewish communities, and of the Hebrew Union College. Researchers are welcome at the Barrows-Loebelson Reading Room. Web visitors will find a treasure trove of material related to Jewish American Heritage Month.

Hebrew Union College, 3101 Clifton Ave., Cincinnati, OH, americanjewisharchives.org

EXHIBITIONS

Noah’s Ark at the Skirball

What does a diverse menagerie of animal sculptures and puppets made of recycled and repurposed materials have to do with Jewish American heritage? The Skirball Cultural Center, known for its in-depth explorations of Jewish and particularly Jewish-American themes, has constructed an 8,000-square-foot child’s fantasy Noah’s ark. The “Jewish” can be hard to spot at first, but in fact the ark is an ethical immersion experience for children that calls upon them to shelter the animals from the flood, to recognize the value in individuals, to work together as a team for the greater good, and to hold out hope for the future.

2701 North Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, skirball.org

From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America

A traveling version of the 2004 U.S. Library of Congress exhibition of the same name, this exhibition fosters Jewish pride and builds bridges of understanding among the nation’s ethnic groups. The exhibition, a partnership between the Wyner Center of the American Jewish Historical Society and the Jewish American Heritage Month Coalition, encourages local communities to supplement content-rich graphic panels with materials drawn from their histories.

jahm.us/haven_to_home.aspx

Dr. Seuss Goes to War . . . and More!Remarkable World War II Editorial Cartoons by Theodor Seuss Geisel

No, he wasn’t Jewish. But during World War II, before he became Dr. Seuss, German-American Evangelical Lutheran Ted Geisel worked as a political cartoonist. In his cartoons he lashed out against isolationism, racism and anti-Semitism. Originating at the Breman Museum in Atlanta, the exhibition may travel the country (after August), sponsored in part by the Jewish American Heritage Month Coalition.

thebreman.org/exhibitions/special-exhibitions.html

Florida Jews in the Military

Stereotypes of Jewish Floridians usually do not include military service—which is precisely why the Jewish Museum of Florida undertook this exhibition. The exhibition team collected 500 photographs, 350 artifacts and 150 medals from soldiers’ families across Florida. It documents Jewish involvement from the Seminole Wars of the 1800s through the present-day wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Display items include a replica of a 1943 searchlight created for Navy ships by Morris Lapidus, who later served as the architect of Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau Hotel.

301 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, FL, jewishmuseum.com/exhibitcurrent301.html

Diana Cohen Altman is an associate publisher of Moment. From 2002 to 2008 she served as director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum. Before then, she worked in the Office of Exhibits Central at the Smithsonian Institution and was former editor-in-chief of the magazine of the National Association for Museum Exhibition. The advisory committee that provided input regarding the selection of materials to appear in this guide was coordinated by Bonnie Tangalos.