By: Jill Weiner with Adam Weiner
Delving into the world of Jewish museums sent us straight to the intersection of art, history, and culture. It also revealed that these once-staid institutions are in the midst of an awesome renaissance. In the past few years, as the ranks of museums in the United States and Canada have grown, so has their ability to entrance, educate, and enrich their visitors.
In 1977, the Council of American Jewish Museums was started by seven institutions. Today, there are 80. Why the sudden growth? "Jewish communities all over the country are creating institutions to preserve, present, and transform Jewish culture," says Joanne Marks Kauvar, executive director of CAJM. With new funding, new blood, and new technology, these museums, explains Kauvar, are able to "engage people with their Jewish identity in a multitude of ways."
So what exactly is a "Jewish museum"? Our definition is a place where Jewish art, history, culture, and identity collide. This means you'll see everything from Torah breastplates to the latest in Israeli films. Chagalls to chicken soup. Menorahs to mini-golf. Judaica to jokesters. All in the form of fascinating exhibits that show how a clever and resourceful people have become knit into the fabric of North America.
The hard part was paring down the list from 80 (with more in the works) to the Top 10. We did that by looking for differences. There is sure to be some overlap, since these institutions all deal with one people's culture and identity. So we looked at location, mission, size, and the collections. We found great ideas in out-of-the-way places; new twists on our long history; a few incontrovertible anchors; and more than a few surprises. But taken individually or as a group, they help explain—in terms we can all understand—what it means to be a Jew today.
There are many more wonderful museums to find and explore. For a complete list, go to www.jewishculture.org.
1. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington, D.C.
"What i want is that anyone who enters the museum does not come out of it the same person," said Elie Wiesel, founding chairman of this incredibly powerful institution, which opened in 1993 with its mission to teach us about the Holocaust and shape a better world. How does a museum that focuses on one of mankind's greatest horrors not become too horrible an experience? By presenting it in very personal terms. "We bring people into the history to help them understand the size, scope, and scale of it," explains Bill Parsons, chief of staff of this remarkable assemblage. For example, upon entering the permanent exhibit, each visitor is given an ID card of an individual. The images and collections are extremely powerful, with the most graphic placed behind half-walls so they can be avoided. Although the main exhibit is not recommended for children under 11, kids are not ignored. "Remember the Children: Daniel's Story," for those 8 and older, follows a child's journey from happy home to concentration camp. Some temporary exhibits focus on genocide in the modern world. The two currently on display are "Darfur" and "A Dangerous Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," about the 100-year-old anti-Semitic tract that was used by the Nazis and still circulates today. An exhibit on the 1936 Berlin Olympics opens April 25. Free tickets are offered first-come, first-served that day, or in advance for a fee from www.tickets.com or (800) 400-9373 www.ushmm.org (202) 488-0400.
2. Beth Tzedec Reuben & Helene Dennis Museum
Toronto, Canada
The double-seated circumcision chair from Berlin, circa 1766, is not the only reason to visit this intimate museum: Its Judaica collection is world-renowned; it is located in a vibrant synagogue that is home to one of the largest Conservative congregations in North America; and its neighborhood is bustling with kosher restaurants and historic synagogues. The museum began in 1964 with the acquisition of the collection of historian Cecil Roth, who later became editor of Encyclopaedia Judaica. It has grown from 1,000 to nearly 2,500 pieces. Among curator Dorion Liebgott's favorites are an illustrated Venetian ketubah—marriage contract—from 1645 (one of nearly 100 kettubot in the collection) and a European folk-art cloth Torah crown (1745). The current exhibit is a delightful display of pieces concerned with the Jewish life cycle. Opening in May, "Paul Goldman: Press Photographer 1943 to 1961" tells the story of the founding of Israel through photos and helps commemorate the country's 60th birthday.
www.beth-tzedec.org; (416) 781-3514, ext. 232
3.The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Don't be surprised: Jewish museums are opening everywhere from Anchorage to El Paso. But the Miller has a special scope. What began as a mom-and-pop-style gallery in a synagogue in Tulsa is well on its way to becoming both a serious institute and the heart of Judaism in the Southwest. The museum's goal is to educate the entire region, Jews and others, on Jewish culture, religion, and history. But to do so means first educating its staff, most of which is Christian, including curator Karen York. (The board is primarily Jewish.) The permanent collection of relics and art covers all the bases. There are archaeological gems, life-cycle pieces—a 19th-century mohel's blade, an embroidered tefillin bag from Poland, a North African yahrzeit memorial light—plus ritual art from the Diaspora and fine art old and new. A scaled-down synagogue is filled with religious objects collected from within the state and around the world. An exhibit on
the Holocaust opens with the 1921 Oklahoma race riots, which killed 300 people, mostly African-Americans attacked by a white mob.
www.jewishmuseum.net; (918) 492-1818
4. Jewish Children's Museum
Brooklyn, New York
Kids are expected to keep their hands on and their voices up in this innovative, 50,000-square-foot fun house dedicated to learning and tolerance. Jewish themes are celebrated and playfully reimagined with interactive exhibits that explain holidays, biblical stories, and even ethics. Some, like Noah's Ark and a kosher supermarket, are shrunk to kid-size; others are exaggerated (a giant Shabbat table with a car-size challah and enormous matzo-ball computers); and some are purposefully out of context, like the rooftop mini–golf course (six holes chronicling Jewish life stages—bris, b'nai mitzvah, wedding, etc.) and a joking refrigerator in the kosher kitchen. The museum—built by the Lubavitch educational group Tzivos Hashem—opened in 2005; the last of its seven floors opens later this year with exhibits on Jewish history. Brain full but stomach empty? There's a kosher deli on the ground floor.
www.jcm.museum; (718) 467-0600
5. The Jewish Museum of Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland
Like many of the establishments on this list, the Jewish Museum of Maryland is multifaceted and impossible to categorize. But whatever your interests, they'll be satisfied. Inside the main building is the world's largest anthology of regional Jewish Americana, dating back to the 1840s. (On loan, but not currently on display, is the bell from the ship The Exodus, which was built in Baltimore.) The genealogy center helps visitors trace their Jewish roots. Beside the main building stand two beautifully restored historic synagogues—one in Greek revival style dating to 1845, the other an ornate Moorish revival built in 1876, with a towering hand-carved wooden ark. There's also an archaeological dig with an unearthed matzo oven and mikvah on view where they were found, inside the Greek revival synagogue. Plus there are regular series of films, discussions, and lectures, as well as family programs and a permanent exhibit for children called "Golden Land" that features dressing up and an immigrant's kitchen. There is no permanent exhibition on the state's Jewish heritage, but temporary shows like "Voices of Lombard Street" (through 2008) place pieces from the collection in a time line of traditional street scenes, complete with chicken squawks. And on view through July is "Ours to Fight For: American Jews in the Second World War," which was curated by the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.
www.jewishmuseummd.org; (410) 732-6400
6. Spertus Museum
Chicago, Illinois
The spertus prides itself on taking an unpredictable view of Judaism. It is located on the top two floors of the Spertus Institute's brand-new, 10-story, $55 million building, which features an uneven facade bulging with 726 individual glass pieces in 556 different shapes. The pieces inside are displayed to be just as unconventional, or as director/curator Rhoda Rosen (see box, page 72) puts it, "We try to explore what it is to be Jewish." Enter and be embraced by Jewish history: 15,000 pieces that seem to float off the wall from floor to ceiling—ancient artifacts, tapestries, modern sculpture, and paintings, all arranged out of time and context. Audiovisual guides help visitors with a particular interest. Overlooking Grant Park and Lake Michigan is a Holocaust memorial, an installation piece by Indian artist Ranbir Kaleka that mixes video, still images, music, and oral history. It is both lovely and horrifying. Among the temporary exhibitions is "New Authentics: Artists of the Post-Jewish Generation" (through mid-April), in which 16 artists explore their relationship with Judaism. In "Imaginary Coordinates" (May through September), Israeli and Palestinian women artists interpret maps of Israel. There's also a take-out kosher café, and a children's exhibit (see box, page 69) that focuses on language and storytelling is set to open in the spring.
www.spertus.edu;
(312) 322-1700
7. Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience
Utica and Natchez, Mississippi
When Macy Hart started the MSJE, he wasn't just creating an exhibit; he was filling a need. "I grew up understanding what it was like not to have the things urban [Jewish] families have," says Hart, whose Mississippi family had to drive 80 miles each way to attend Sunday school or synagogue. In 1986, he incorporated; three years later, he had a museum. Now he has two, with two more—in Selma, Ala., and Meridian, Miss.—in the works. The 12,000-square-foot outpost in Utica features galleries and a sanctuary designed around a beautiful wooden ark. Its current exhibit, "Alsace to America," documents 19th-century Jewish emigration from France and Germany. The Natchez site is inside a 100-year-old synagogue designed in Southern/Greco-Roman style with a massive Italian marble ark and a pipe organ. On display are artifacts documenting 200 years of Jews in the city. In 2000, MSJE evolved into the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which has expanded the mission to provide Judaic services and advice—including a "circuit-riding rabbi" and a variety of cultural programs—to small and midsize communities throughout the South.
www.msje.org; (601) 362-6357
8. Skirball Cultural Center
Los Angeles, California
In West Los Angeles and just three miles from the famous Getty Museum, the Skirball is a sprawling complex that has broken free of its traditional role—it was founded in 1913 as a museum at Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College—and is spreading, like a desert storm, over every aspect of Jewish art, culture, history, and thought. Besides conducting more than 200 programs a year, the Skirball has a 350-seat auditorium, a kosher café, an archaeological dig for kids, an 8,000-square-foot park based on Noah's Ark (see box, page 69), and beautiful gardens. The permanent exhibit, "Visions and Values," begins with ancient relics and journeys through 4,000 years of the Jewish experience, covering everything from Czars to China, America to Israel. According to curator Grace Cohen Grossman, the center changed its own history 12 years ago with a new location and a new design by Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie. There are always numerous temporary exhibits: Our picks for the spring are "Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956–1966" and "The Inflatable Crown," vibrant color photographs of people from 34 countries wearing balloon hats.
www.skirball.org; (310) 440-4500
9. Judah L. Magnes Museum
Berkeley, California
Opened in 1962, the Magnes is the oldest Jewish museum in the western United States and is also, despite its small size, one of the most innovative: The world's first Jewish Film Festival was organized here 25 years ago. Its purpose is to document and explore the trailblazing, entrepreneurial Jewish spirit that helped build the American West (think Levi Strauss, Stanley Marcus, Samuel Goldwyn). The Western Jewish History Center is in the same building but houses its own museum's worth of photographs, art, personal artifacts, and more. Together, the two show in great detail and with great vibrancy how Jews helped settle (and continue to influence) the American West. In 2010, the museum will move from its 3,500-square-foot space to new and bigger digs, where more of the extensive permanent collection can be shown. Until then, many of the pieces are compiled in temporary exhibits called "Revisions." That gallery is devoted to guest curators and their choices from the permanent collection. In recognition of the upcoming celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary, there is a show of paintings, photographs, and video by contemporary Israeli artists.
www.magnes.org; (510) 549-6950
10. The Jewish Museum
New York City, New York
In 1904, the Jewish Theological Seminary turned a gift of 26 ceremonial objects into the first Jewish museum in America. Like a biblical tale, the 26 pieces have multiplied into 26,000; like a fairy tale, they live in a mansion on Fifth Avenue. Today, "The Jewish," as some New Yorkers call it, is regarded as the leading museum of its kind in North America. However, unlike some of the others on this list, it sees itself primarily as an art museum. The permanent exhibit, "Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey," uses 800 works going back 4,000 years to display the vastness, creativity, and sometimes remarkable similarities across Jewish culture: For example, a menorah carved into an ancient Roman burial plate is nearly identical to a contemporary version. There is an amazing collection of Judaica, traditional and reimagined in the Diaspora, as well as great works of 19th- and 20th-century art. There are audio exhibits, video installations, and the National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting (with selections such as The Rugrats' Passover Special, episodes of Seinfeld, and an interview with David Ben-Gurion). Family programs include concerts, holiday parties, and an interactive "archaeology zone" for kids. Temporary exhibits have looked at a single artist or an era from a Jewish perspective, and they often travel; among them have been shows on Modigliani, controversial themes like "Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art," and cross-generational attractions like the work of author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. Currently on view is "Warhol's Jews," and opening in May is "Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976," which places 60 masterpieces alongside the writings of Jewish critics Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg.
www.thejewishmuseum.org; (212) 423-3200
