Museum of Jewish Heritage : Exhibitions & Collections : Traveling Exhibitions

Many exhibitions curated by the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust are available to travel to museums, community centers, universities, and libraries around the world.

	Ours to Fight For: American Jews in the Second World War Winner of the grand prize in the 2004 Excellence in Exhibitions competition of the American Association of Museums, Ours to Fight For invites visitors to explore the experiences of Jewish men and women who joined the American war effort. Through the voices of those who served, the exhibition conveys what it was like to serve as an American and a Jew in this greatest of human conflicts. Among the more than 200 artifacts available for display is the prayer book that protected a Jewish sergeant from shrapnel because he carried it in his breast pocket, and a Torah scroll used by Chaplain Rabbi David Max Eichhorn at the first Jewish service at Dachau after the camp was liberated. A computer station allows visitors to explore the experiences of other groups who served in the military during World War II, including African Americans, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Soviet Jews. Borrowing venues are encouraged to add material to the exhibition by soliciting artifacts and photographs from veterans and their families in the local community. See more web features for Ours to Fight For. This exhibition is traveling to: Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center Skokie, IL February 16, 2012 – June 17, 2012 Past venues: Holocaust Museum Houston Houston, TX July 15, 2011 – December 31, 2011 The National WWII Museum New Orleans, LA November 11, 2010 – April 24, 2011 Jewish Museum Maryland Baltimore, MD February 24, 2008 - July 27, 2008 Information on hosting this exhibition Selected installation images Major funding for this exhibition was generously provided by Jack and Susan Rudin and Family in memory of Lewis Rudin; by Irving Schneider in memory of his friend, Lewis Rudin; and by Irving and June Paler in memory of June's father, Duncan Robertson, who fought for justice in both World Wars. Additional support provided by Verizon Foundation and EveryoneSmile.com.
	Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow tells the story of Jewish professors who fled Nazism and came to America in the 1930s and 1940s, finding teaching positions at historically black colleges and universities. The exhibition explores the encounter between these scholars and their students, and their impact on each other, the Civil Rights Movement, and American society. The exhibition contains more than 70 artifacts and documents, and more than 20 large-scale images. The visual elements are animated by the voices of scholars and students in films by Pacific Street Films—producers of the award-winning film From Swastika to Jim Crow that aired on PBS, and served as the inspiration for the exhibition. See more web features for Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow. This exhibition is traveling to: Florida Holocaust Museum St. Petersburg, FL October 13 , 2011- January 31, 2012 Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS February 14-May 27, 2012 William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, Atlanta, GA June 24-October 9, 2012 National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia, PA February -June 2013 Holocaust Memorial Center, Farmington Hills, MI August 4--December 1, 2013 Dusable Museum Of African American History, Chicago, IL January 10-April 6, 2014 Past venues: Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center Skokie, IL February 3, 2011 – May 31, 2011 Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture Baltimore, MD April 23, 2010 – September 26, 2010 I.P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium Orangeburg, SC October 23, 2010 – January 3, 2011 Information on hosting this exhibition Selected installation images This exhibition was made possible through major funding from the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional support provided by the Helen Bader Foundation; The Lupin Foundation; The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation; public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; the Alpern Family Foundation; and the Charles and Mildred Schnurmacher Foundation.
	Project Mah Jongg This wildly popular exhibition explores the traditions, history, and meaning of the game of mah jongg in Jewish-American life from the 1920s to today. Project Mah Jongg is available for rental beginning March 2011. The game of mah jongg is explored in dynamic formats throughout the exhibition, including 20th century popular objects and a visitor-activated soundscape that features clacking tiles, exclamations from games by Jewish-American and Chinese-American players, reminiscences, and vintage music. Large-scale graphics by Isaac Mizrahi, Maira Kalman, Bruce McCall, and Christoph Niemann illustrate mah jongg as ongoing muse for contemporary artists. A game table at the core of the exhibition invites visitors to engage in the continuing tradition. The exhibition serves as historical treatment of the topic, a placeholder for memory, a generator of whimsy, and a stage set for the game’s continuation. The environment conveys how mah jongg is much more than a game: it is a carrier of fantasy, identity, memory, and meaning. See more web features for Project Mah Jongg . This exhibition is traveling to: Oregon Jewish Museum Portland, OR September 21, 2011 – December 31, 2011 Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage Beachwood, OH January 24, 2012- April 22, 2012 Skirball Cultural Center Los Angeles, CA May 17, 2012- September 2, 2012 Jewish Museum of Florida Miami Beach, FL October 15, 2012 – March 17, 2013 William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, Inc., Atlanta, GA April 28– September 15, 2013 Information on hosting this exhibition Selected installation images This exhibition is made possible through the generosity of the National Mah Jongg League. Additional support provided by Sylvia Hassenfeld and the 2wice Arts Foundation.
	Emma Lazarus: Poet of Exiles Known for more than a century as the author of the lines “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free . . . ,” the poet Emma Lazarus gave voice to the Statue of Liberty and generations of newcomers to America. However, few people know her fascinating story, her Sephardic background, her American roots, and her work for Jewish causes and a Jewish homeland. Learn how Emma Lazarus was inspired to craft an enduring message on exile, refuge, and the promise of America. This exhibition brings new insights into the world of Emma Lazarus—writer, advocate, and fourth-generation Jewish American. It explores her Sephardic background, her family's participation in American life, and her work for Jewish causes. Visitors learn how Emma Lazarus was inspired to craft an iconic message that addressed exile, immigration, and the promise of America. See more web features for http://www.mjhnyc.org/emma/ Information on hosting this exhibition. This exhibition is made possible, in part, through the generous support of the Righteous Persons Foundation, the Pickman Exhibition Fund, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, David Berg Foundation, American Express, Patti Askwith Kenner and Family, George Klein, Klara and Larry Silverstein, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, The Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation, Con Edison, and David Bruce Smith Family Foundation. Media partners are New York magazine and Jewish Week.
	*Fire in My Heart: The Story of Hannah Senesh* Among Israel’s most important heroes is Hannah Senesh, who died by firing squad in 1944 at age 23. This first-ever exhibition tells how this Budapest-born poet, diarist, and author of the hymn Eli, Eli discovered her love for the Land of Israel, volunteered for a mission to rescue downed Allied fliers and Jews from Nazi-occupied Hungary, and became an enduring symbol of courage and determination. See more web features for Fire in My Heart: The Story of Hannah Senesh. This exhibition is traveling to: Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center Skokie, IL May 12– September 15, 2013 This exhibition is made possible by leadership gifts in loving memory of Anne Ratner from her children and grandchildren, and from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Additional support provided by the David Berg Foundation and The Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation, Inc. We are grateful to the Senesh Family for making the exhibition possible by providing material from their collection. Travel generously sponsored by El Al Israel Airlines. Media Partner:
	*The Shooting of Jews in Ukraine: Holocaust by Bullets* Between 1941 and 1944, almost 1.5 million Jews were murdered when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Most were shot by mobile killing units consisting of German SS, army, police, and local collaborators. This exhibition presents the evidence, both physical and testimonial, gathered by Father Patrick Desbois and his team from Yahad-In Unum. Interviews with Ukrainian bystanders and witnesses, together with photographs, artifacts, and text panels, tell the chilling story of Jewish victims—men, women, and children—who were executed near the places they lived, with their neighbors watching. The Shooting of Jews in Ukraine: Holocaust by Bullets was originally created by the Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris and was presented at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in cooperation with Yahad-In Unum. See more web features for The Shooting of Jews in Ukraine: Holocaust by Bullets, produced by the Mémorial de la Shoah. Information on hosting this exhibition Selected installation images This exhibition was made possible through generous funding from Robert I. Goldman Foundation, Victor Pinchuk Foundation, and Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation.
	*Scream the Truth at the World—Emanuel Ringelblum and the Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto* Recognizing that events in Europe in the fall of 1939 were unprecedented and that they would require careful documentation, Warsaw historian Emanuel Ringelblum gathered a few dozen individuals to form a group code-named Oyneg Shabbes (Joy of Sabbath). The mission of the writers, historians, rabbis, teachers, and welfare workers that comprised the group was to document Jewish life in Nazi-occupied Poland. The group collected reports on the deportation and murders of Jews, as well as ghetto artifacts, photographs, school essays, and ghetto art between September 1939 and January 1943. As the Nazis liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto, members of Oyneg Shabbes buried the archive in containers. Less than a handful of the group’s members survived the war, but on September 18, 1946, the first cache was pulled from the ghetto’s rubble. A second cache was found in 1950. The last cache has never been discovered. The Ringelblum Archive is now the most important source on the destruction of Polish Jewry. High-quality reproductions from the archives of the Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw and a short film showing the recovery of the hidden archive make up this exhibition. See more web features for Scream the Truth at the World. This exhibition is traveling to: Institute for Holocaust Education Omaha, NE January 5, 2011 – February 25, 2011 Information on hosting this exhibition Selected installation images
	*A Young Girl at Ghetto Terezin: 1941-1944* Drawings by Helga Weissová Hosková In 1941, Helga Weissová was deported from Prague to the Terezin Ghetto with her parents. Her father told her, “Draw what you see,” and Helga began documenting her life in the ghetto. When she and her mother were to be deported to Auschwitz in September 1944, Helga entrusted her drawings to her uncle—who hid them until liberation and took them back to Prague. Helga and her mother survived and returned to Prague after the war. Photographic reproductions of ten of Helga’s drawings make up this exhibition. Accompanying the drawings are excerpts from Helga’s diary that convey her view of life in the Terezin ghetto. Past venues: Burlington Arts Center, Burlington, VT May 2010 Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, NB 2009 Information on hosting this exhibition Selected installation images