As the world faces the novel coronavirus pandemic, the stewards of history face a unique challenge: How can museums continue to engage audiences while their physical buildings are shuttered in the interests of public health? The answer, for many, lies in retooling online infrastructure, bringing programming to social media and launching outreach campaigns. Museums are…
Renowned shoe designer and entrepreneur Stuart Weitzman announced Tuesday that he and his family are donating $1 million to the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. In recognition of this gift, the Museum’s “First Families” gallery, which explores the lives of early Jewish settlers in colonial America, will be named in honor of…
Two contrasting images in “1917: How One Year Changed The World,” at Philadelphia’s National Museum of American Jewish History, demonstrate the volatility of American attitudes toward immigrants.A World War I poster cautioning against food waste is also a hopeful narrative of arrival and assimilation. A cluster of immigrants gaze from a ship toward the Statue…
I nearly stepped on the tall, bearded man laying out pairs of big red headshots on the floor of a hallway in the offices of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. It was J.J. Tiziou — who you might know best from the massive photographic installation of “How Philly Moves” between the…
(JTA) — Sammy Davis Jr. is quoted on why he converted to Judaism in a new exhibition at the National Museum of American Jewish History. “I became a Jew because I was ready and willing to understand the plight of a people who fought for thousands of years for a homeland,” the late entertainer said. What…
With attendance figures stagnant, Philadelphia’s National Museum of American Jewish History should change its name, retool its mission, and target broader audiences. That’s the message in a prickly editorial from Liberty City Press, an independent news service whose publisher boasts personal ties to the museum’s founders. Headlined “History Museums Sucking Wind on Independence Mall,” the…
We’re two weeks from Halloween folks, which means while the rest of the country is already in the full swing Christmas kitsch, we of the tribal persuasion get to celebrate something much more special this year. And why shouldn’t we go all out? It’s going to be another 70,000 years, or approximately 2,800 generations, before…
“The Emigrants” a circa-1930 oil painting by Julius Bloch, is the signature image in a new exhibition at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, “Jewish Artists in America 1925-1945.” “It conveys the experience of immigrants, one that is intimately and deeply tied to this museum,” said Josh Perelman, NMAJH’s chief curator and…
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