SEPTEMBER 9, 2002

CULTURE
Museums bolstering Judaism’s public face

As Jews celebrate their High Holy Days through Sept. 16, they can also celebrate a renaissance among Jewish museums. At a time when many cultural institutions are facing shrinking budgets and dwindling donations, Jewish museums seem to be thriving. In New York, the Museum of Jewish Heritage is adding a new $60 million wing blocks from the destruction of Ground Zero. Two healthy California Jewish museums are merging to share a showplace space in downtown San Francisco. And a $10 million Jewish museum is planned for Cleveland, Ohio.

Jewish museums range from stately institutions to collections in the corners of synagogues and Jewish community centers. "The interest in American Jewish history has been rising astronomically," says Ellen Smith, a consultant to many Jewish museums nationally. "Museums have emerged as one of the most able educators for people of all ages, economic and social backgrounds to learn about Jews as a people and Jews as holders of the faith." When the Council of American Jewish Museums was founded in 1977, it had just seven member institutions. Now there are more than 80.

But the museums' growth carries with it questions of identity - particularly at a time when the U.S. Jewish population is struggling with lower synagogue affiliation and high intermarriage rates. A recent controversial pop-art Holocaust exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York - which included a concentration camp model made out of Legos - showed that art can anger as well as enlighten. Are Jewish museums in your area and state expanding or shifting their focus? At a time when American Christians are showing increased interest in Judaism and the state of Israel, are museums aiming exhibits mainly at Jews or non-Jews? What face - religious or secular - are they putting on Jewish identity?

Why it matters
As the High Holy Days, the Sept. 11 anniversary and continuing violence in Israel occupy American Jews' minds this fall, the proliferation and impact of Jewish museums shows how the development of Jewish identity in America is a continuing story. Jewish identity issues, including questions of assimilation, affiliation and intermarriage, will be of particular interest when the National Jewish Population Survey results are released later this year.

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National sources

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• Ellen Smith is a consultant to museums and historic sites all over the country and a former curator at the American Jewish Historical Society. She says Jewish museums "are a growing educator and destination as Jews and non-Jews look for ways to understand Judaism in America." Contact 781-736-2998, grallaprogram@aol.com.
• Adele Lander Burke is the director of the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. She says a pressing question confronting most Jewish museums is, "What does it mean to be a Jewish institution?" The Skirball has taken a different approach by deciding that their primary audience is not the Jewish community, but the broader community. The museum recently hosted a Sept. 11 exhibit that had no discernable Jewish content at all. Contact 310-440-4652.
• Laura Apelbaum is chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums and executive director of the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum in Washington D.C. She says increased interest in Jewish museums comes from beyond the Jewish community and also from those returning to Jewish religious traditions. Contact 202-789-0900, laura@jhsgw.org.
• Richard A. Siegel is the executive director of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. He is currently leading a study, to be released in October, about the direction of Jewish cultural institutions. He says his research shows a decline in interest in religious Judaism and greater interest in Jewish culture. But, he says, findings also show that the creators of Jewish culture - artists, writers, musicians - do not believe you can have Jewish culture without Jewish religion. Contact 212-629-0500.
• Walter Reich is professor of international affairs, ethics and human behavior at George Washington University and a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He was the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum from 1995 to 1998. Contact 202-994-5075, wreich@gwu.edu.

Background
• According to religious identification studies done by the Graduate School of the City University of New York, the number of Jews in the United States decreased from 3.1 million to 2.8 million from 1990 to 2001 - a drop of 10 percent. The 2000 National Jewish Population Survey, slated to be released later this year, is widely expected to also show that religious affiliation among Jews is down.
• Two Jewish museums in the San Francisco Bay Area decided there was not enough community support for both of them to expand, so they merged to open a larger facility than neither could have afforded. Read an article from the Jewish Bulletin News of Northern California.
• Read a WKYC.com article on the $6 million private donation that will help build a 15,000-square-foot Jewish museum in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. It is expected to open in 2004.
• Read Richard Siegel's 2002 report to the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, "Reflections on the Commission on the Future of Jewish Culture in America."
• Read a Salon.com article on the fervor incited by the Jewish Museum of New York's recent exhibit, "Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art."