Beacon, Fall 2014

A Revolutionary Promise Two Views on Pew Laundry, Labor, and Love OPEN for Interpretation

FALL 2014

On the Cover Piano of Irving Berlin, purchased from Calvin L. Weser, New York, 1909, Courtesy of Elizabeth Peters with Manuscript, God Bless America, Irving Berlin, Library of Congress Music Division, Courtesy of Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization Photo by Karl Seifert

Contents

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Below Seltzer bottles National Museum of American Jewish History Peter H. Schweitzer Collection of Jewish Americana Photo by Jeffrey E. Holder

Meet Rob Levin Laundry, Labor, and Love OPEN for Interpretation Two Views on Pew

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A Revolutionary Promise Calendar of Events For the Love of the Game Annual Report

From the Director WE AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN JEWISH HIST O RY ARE VERY EXCITED TO LAUNCH BEACON—THE MUSEUM’S BIANNUAL MAGAZINE.

At a time when short form is booming (think about the 140-character limit of a “tweet”), Beacon will engage our supporters in a deeper dialogue about the past, present, and future of the American Jewish experience.

The name of this publication is inspired by artist Ben Rubin’s Beacon, a light sculpture that glows from atop the Museum’s five-story building and enlivens the façade that faces historic Independence Mall. In his work, Rubin seeks to animate a page of the Talmud—which he calls an early example of hypertext—in which a central text is embedded within layers of related commentary.

At its best, our Museum is like a page of Talmud—a dynamic, infinitely expandable conversation. The Talmud is a beacon of wisdom, and our Beacon sculpture may evoke for some the notion of the ner tamid, or eternal light. Judaism and Jewishness have always been adaptable, but they have endured for thousands of years—360 of which have taken place in the United States and are illuminated in our galleries.

Our inaugural issue includes a one-year follow-up to “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” the Pew study released in October 2013. In “Two Views on Pew,” we feature the perspectives of renowned philanthropist Michael Steinhardt and prominent Rabbi Brad Hirschfield.

This issue also introduces you to some of the great programs and exhibitions that are “on deck” at the Museum after our fabulously successful Chasing Dreams closes and embarks on its national tour. We also take the opportunity to introduce you to some of the Museum family. You’ll meet a long-time member of our education department, Rob Levin, now community relations liaison—a position we created as a result of our 2013 Strategic Plan’s emphasis on the desire to build bridges with diverse audiences.

Likewise, we endeavor to build bridges with you, bringing the Museum to your living room through this new publication. We hope you become part of our ongoing conversation—whether you’re enjoying our galleries, visiting Chasing Dreams as it travels across the country, or engaging with our growing online content, which includes podcasts and videos of our past programs.

Thank you for all your support, which makes our Museum the vibrant, warm, and welcoming place it is.

Ivy L. Barsky, CEO and Gwen Goodman Director

P.S. We’d love to hear your thoughts on our new magazine.

Please feel free to email us at beacon@nmajh.org.

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What Students Learned from Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American “Teaching American history through the lens of baseball is a powerful way to motivate students,” says Ronit Lusky, the Museum’s manager of education programs. “Our new curriculum for eighth through twelfth graders, Breaking Barriers: Baseball, Social Change, and Civil Rights, helps students connect their personal experiences to historical stories of leadership and service.”

Part of the curriculum—developed for the Museum’s special exhibition, Chasing Dreams—involves sharing the stories of baseball greats, such as humanitarian Roberto Clemente. After sharing one of Clemente’s guiding principles, “If you have the opportunity to make things better and you don’t, then you’re wasting your time on this earth,” with a group of tenth graders from Philadelphia’s Lankenau High School, Lusky challenged them by asking, “How can you make a difference?”

Photo by Jessi Melcer

Educating Dreamers

Ronit Lusky working with students from Lankenau High School, Philadelphia.

One student responded, “I have a friend who’s getting into trouble on the streets. I will try to talk him out of it.”

This student was one of many inspired by the exhibition’s portrayal of baseball giants such as Clemente who took on the mantle of leadership and fearlessly fought for social justice and civil rights.

Chasing Dreams’s educational programs have touched more than 6,000 students from approximately 200 public and independent K-12 schools and summer camps and taught them that, like their heroes, they too can effect change.

America’s Jews and the First World War Collected Stories of Patriotism When the United States entered World War I in 1917, nearly 250,000 American Jews served in its armed forces. The Museum’s letters from WWI tell the stories of some of those soldiers, such as Jerome Hirschler, whose patriotism drove them to serve so enthusiastically. Upon enlisting in the US Navy, Hirschler wrote to an aunt, “[I am] discharging my obligation to the land which has protected and reared me in freedom, offering opportunities unequaled elsewhere.”

Other artifacts in the collection reveal that Jewish support was not just about fighting in the war, but also about efforts on the home front. In September 1918, President Woodrow Wilson created the United War Work Campaign to coordinate the fundraising campaigns of organizations that aided soldiers on the battlefield, including the Jewish Welfare Board, into one massive effort. With the end of the war in sight, Americans of all backgrounds raised $170 million, more than $3.16 billion in today’s dollars, in a nationwide drive.

In the poster shown at right, a flag of each of the seven participating organizations flies high.

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Poster, United War Work Campaign Illustrated by Ernest Baker Hamlin National Museum of American Jewish History Peter H. Schweitzer Collection of Jewish Americana

Photo by Ilana Blumenthal Photo by Matthew Christopher

S TA FF

A Jewish Holiday of Love Young Friends Celebrate in Style Tu B’Av, a celebration of love, might be the minor Jewish holiday you’ve never heard of, but for the Young Friends of NMAJH it’s a major event. This year at the second annual A Midsummer’s Eve that marked the holiday, nearly 300 revelers ages 21 to 40 danced the night away.

In keeping with Tu B’Av’s origins—in which unmarried women during the Second Temple period dressed in white and sought their love matches—most guests wore white, some adorned with white-flower crowns.

The tremendous response to the Young Friends’ annual celebration from Philadelphia’s young professional community mirrors the group’s exponential growth, with membership increasing fourfold since 2012.

“Three essentials animate our vision—a dynamic social scene with events like A Midsummer’s Eve, a rich intellectual component with provocative speakers, and the Museum’s identity as the only national institution dedicated to telling the American Jewish story. It’s all part of how Young Friends members are making strong, potentially lifelong connections to the Museum as the next generation of ambassadors and patrons,” says Elijah Dornstreich, Chair of the Young Friends Board and a new member of the Museum’s Board of Trustees.

P R OFILE

Rob Levin

Community Relations Liaison “There’s a place for all at our table,” says Rob of the Museum’s Annual Freedom Seder Revisited.

The way this celebration of freedom embraces diversity characterizes Rob’s role as ambassador to the community at large. He helps groups from different ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds connect their stories to the stories the Museum tells.

His NMAJH story: Began twelve years ago, before the current building was erected, in the education department.

First visit: In 1995, Rob brought an Operation Understanding dialogue group to see Face to Face: Encounters between Jews & Blacks, an exhibition that featured work by Philadelphia-based photographer Laurence Salzmann.

Museum visitor who inspired him: A Cambodian survivor of the Killing Fields who shared her hopes for making a better world for future generations.

Experiences that shaped him: Went to high school in Brazil; has extended family and friends in Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Colombia; led missions to Cuba; and lived on Kibbutz T’zora, where he helped new immigrants from Latin America adjust to life in Israel.

Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, and some French and Italian.

In his free time: Writes poems under the pen name Rafi Lev (Healer of the Heart).

Personal mantra: “Kadima (onward)—yesterday’s lessons inspire tomorrow’s legacies.”

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Laundry, Labor, and Love

By Professor Pamela S. Nadell

This early-twentieth-century photo—on the wall of the tenement bedroom in the “Dreams of Freedom” section of our exhibition—has a story to tell. At first glance, we see a young woman holding a baby while stirring laundry on a stove. Nearby, a second child stares out at us. It appears someone has taken their photograph. We don’t know who; we don’t know why.

On a closer look surprises emerge. Is this working woman dressed for doing laundry? She seems to be wearing spats—cloth wrapped and buttoned around her ankles, a style then worn by men and women. Is that a checked skirt and shirtwaist under her apron? I wonder, what is going on outside the frame?

What do we know about the making of this picture?

This photograph comes from the Records of the Women’s Bureau of the US National Archives and Records Administration, a repository of government documents.

Established in 1920, the bureau promotes “the welfare of wage-earning women.” How it acquired the photo is unknown; its caption dates it to more than a year before the bureau was founded. That this photograph comes from this agency makes me wonder, is this a young mother and her children? Or, is our young woman a household worker minding someone else’s children?

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Tenement Kitchen US National Archives

As an historian, I can invent different scenarios for this young woman’s life. Perhaps she came to America from a shtetl somewhere in eastern Europe. Now she lives in a tworoom tenement flat. Her husband is at work, either stitching in a sweatshop or hawking wares from a pushcart. Maybe there is an older child at school, but the two youngest are at home on washing day.

This young mother wants to be a modern American woman, like those whose pictures she has tacked up on the wall. Watching her churn laundry, I think of how strong she is to lift that washtub, and also how lucky I am that electric washing machines brought a measure of freedom to women’s lives.

I doubt we’ll ever know which of either of these stories I’ve imagined is true. But, what I also see is that this woman smiles for her photographer. That smile hints that she dreams of freedom. I like to think that indeed, her dreams for the future came true and that they carried her away from this tenement to the grand concourses of American life.

—— Pamela S. Nadell is Professor and Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History as well as Chair, Department of History, and Director, Jewish Studies Program at American University

OPEN for Interpretation Making the Familiar Unfamiliar Imagine two paint-splattered artists in front of a synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side sewing colorful swatches of cloth on old Singer pedal-pumped machines. Their 250-square-foot working space is outlined with tape, representing the narrow footprint of early twentieth-century tenement living.

Keir Johnston and Ernel Martinez were the Museum’s first artists in residence under its new OPEN for Interpretation program. This performance was just one aspect of their 2013 residency, which was inspired by American Jewish involvement in the turn-of-the-century garment industry and by broader themes of labor and struggle that resonate today.

OPEN invites a variety of creative thinkers to seek inspiration for new works of art that bring the American Jewish experience to life for Museum visitors in innovative ways.

This signature program has already attracted major support from important funders. In July 2014, the William Penn Foundation awarded the Museum a $150,000 grant to support OPEN’s artist residencies for three years, starting in 2015.

Sparks of Inspiration For OPEN artists, the creative process often begins with surprising stories and objects. In their original and highly inventive audio experience through the core exhibition, this year’s artists in residence, Dito van Reigersberg (as his irreverent persona, Martha Graham Cracker) and Music Director Andrew Nelson put their own spin on key personalities and stories in the Museum.

Along with highlighting famous figures such as Leonard Bernstein, Martha spotlights lesser-known individuals like Ray Frank Litman, also known as the “Girl Rabbi of the Golden West.”

“...after five minutes with Dito and Andrew, I started looking at everything from artifacts to event spaces with new eyes.”

—Emily August, Director of Public Programs Van Reigersberg and Nelson’s residency culminates in a cabaret entitled It’s High Time I Said Something: Martha Graham Cracker’s Intervention at the Museum. The acclaimed

Martha Graham Cracker Courtesy of Andrew Loxley/Feltfoto

musicians describe it as “a wild and bumpy ride” through Broadway classics and pop standards. Their musical reinventions are the kind of reinterpretations that lie at the heart of OPEN. For van Reigersberg, co-founder and co-artistic director of Philadelphia’s OBIE Award-winning Pig Iron Theatre Company, OPEN provides a chance to explore his mother’s Jewish roots. For Nelson, a bassist, composer, and arranger, it offers an opportunity to delve into the musical legacy of Jewish artists on Broadway.

His reverence for an era of music he likens to “the melting pot that America was and still is” guides his spirited musical reinventions. He works to “infuse something new in the music while letting its [original] genius speak.”

OPEN encourages artists, visitors, and staff to genuinely re-think history and the way we tell stories. “I’ve worked here for four years,” says Emily August, director of public programs, “and after five minutes with Dito and Andrew, I started looking at everything from artifacts to event spaces through new eyes.”

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Two Views

on Pew

“ The October 2013 Pew Study is critically important to understanding the attitudes of American Jews, their connections to Jewish life, and how Jewish identity is continuing to evolve. Below, we are proud to share two interpretations of the results by leading community advocates, philanthropist Michael Steinhardt and Rabbi Brad Hirschfield. By digging into and having informed discussions about this study, we can help prioritize communal needs and initiatives to continue to strengthen the American Jewish community. I believe the results of this study help illustrate why the Museum is such a valuable treasure for the next generation of American Jewry.” – M I M I S C H N E I R O V , B O A R D M E M B E R A N D E D U C A T I O N C O M M I T T E E C H A I R

The Meaning of the 94 Percent

By Michael Steinhardt

L

ast year, the Pew study told us something that would have been mind-boggling just years ago: 94 percent of Jews are “proud to be Jewish.” I believe this is an enormous change from previous generations, and the reason for this change is a subject unto itself—whether it is pride in Israel or a gradual recognition of Jewish achievement that allows Jews to participate in almost every industry and profession. Regardless, one point remains clear: This pride is unprecedented in Diaspora Jewish history…

What exactly is this pride that an overwhelming majority of Jews possess? What are its contours, and what does it omit?

Here the issue becomes more complicated. In other areas explored by Pew, particularly in the realm of communal and denominational identification, the numbers are seemingly not so sanguine. One-third of Jews in the Millennial generation consider themselves to be “Jews of no religion.” If we resist belonging, what exactly are we proud of?

I maintain that we are proud of secular Jewish achievement and accomplishment, a phenomenon that has only grown in recent years. When I was a child, I knew the name of just about every successful Jewish athlete.…We had the same feeling about exceptional Hollywood actors who were Jewish.

Now take that very specific pride in Sandy Koufax or Barbra Streisand, and expand it… and you can understand part of 8

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what constitutes Jewish pride… today. Nobel Prize winners, scientists, musicians, great writers, and artists in every conceivable media—it all comes together in a new, all-encompassing mosaic of pride that isn’t jingoism but something akin to connection, familiarity, and kinship born of shared cultural experience. As the Pew report revealed, halachic Jewishness isn’t a prerequisite for such feelings. The pride comes not from traditional lineage but from a broader association, a societal association—and that too is different today.

Unfortunately, at this point in our history and culture, we have pride but not enough knowledge to back it up… We must start focusing on educational models that bring the knowledge and content of secular achievement to young Jews, and that help explain what historic Jewish values and ideas contribute to that achievement. We must find and train educators with a knowledge base to help Jews understand what elements of Jewish history and wisdom have informed the actions of Jews in the secular world. After all, it will be much easier to strengthen a sense of Peoplehood if we teach our children the secular history of our people. This will create a substrata of emotional connectivity upon which a more durable Jewish identity can be built. In the end, our goal must be that in the next generation, “94 percent” will be bandied about not just to describe Jewish pride, but education, connection, and commitment—the recipe for a vibrant Jewish future.

—— Michael H. Steinhardt is Chairman of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life. This is an excerpt from “The 94 Percent,” a longer essay by Michael Steinhardt.

Read the entire essay at NMAJH.org/pew.

Photo by Barry Halkin/Halkin Photography

Museum exterior

Our Often Changing, Never Ending Story

By Rabbi Brad Hirschfield

P

ew statistics or not, neither the Jewish people, nor Judaism, are going away; both Jews as a people and Judaism as a religion are here to stay. And even if I’m wrong, it doesn’t pay to worry.

Those who use last year’s Pew study to predict the disappearance of the Jews or Judaism join generations of past doomsayers who concluded erroneously that our end was near. In the face of any research over which the Jewish community wrings its collective hands, concern about Jewish durability, especially given the freedom and opportunity that mark American Jewish history, is overblown.

To experience the rich and nuanced texture of the American Jewish experience on display in the Museum’s marvelous exhibitions is to be reminded of that. Here one is prompted not to confuse what is comfortably Jewish for some of us, with what contributes to creating a rich and successful Jewish future.

Just look at the variety of American Jewish stories that define greatness that the Museum tells—from that of Albert

Einstein, whose theory of relativity changed the way we look at the world, to that of Golda Meir who became Prime Minister of Israel.

Judaism is not simply a religion. The absence of God or uncertainty about God’s existence as a component in Jewish Identity that Pew points to, may be upsetting for many of us, but is neither a barrier to great Jewishness, nor a predictor of its weakening.

Throughout history, what has been constant among Jews and in Judaism, is change. If recognizability to their forbearers were the central test of successful continuity, a generation of bold and often heretical Jews, including my own greatgrandparents, would not have set off across the ocean to create a new Jewish future.

About the only things necessary for a people’s success are the will of people to claim membership, and to use their inherited past, however creatively, as a way to build better lives for themselves and those they love.

No, not all people’s attempts to define their Jewishness will prove successful. And it’s true that no Jewish generation has ever succeeded without the commitment to building both homes and families that unambiguously identify themselves as Jewish.

But beyond that, we dare not assume that the Jewish future is doomed. History simply tells us otherwise.

—— Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is President of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.

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BETWEEN THE LINES

A Revolutionary Promise George Washington’s Iconic Letter In 1790, George Washington wrote a letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island—a letter that endures as one of the most profound affirmations of religious liberty by an American president.

Washington found inspiration for this letter during his first presidential visit to Rhode Island in the lyrical welcome delivered to him

by Moses Seixas, chief representative of the congregation. It was Seixas who originated some of the phrases that Washington made immortal, such as his promise that the US government would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

Washington’s letter is one of a series he wrote to religious communities throughout the new nation—including Lutheran, Quaker, Baptist, and Roman Catholic—on religious rights. Together, these letters underscored his conviction that, “Every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

The letter was the focus of the Museum’s 2012 exhibition To Bigotry No Sanction: George Washington and Religious Freedom.

For the occasion, Dr. Jonathan Sarna, the Museum’s chief historian and Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, completed an analysis of Seixas’s welcome and Washington’s response. The analysis can be found online at NMAJH.org/ReligiousFreedom.

The exhibition catalog is available at the Museum Store.

Courtesy of the Morris Morgenstern Foundation

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Highlighting Museum Visitors’ Insightful Voices In January 2015, Israeli artist Liat Segal will make her US debut at the Museum with Scattered Light, an innovative work of new media art. Drawing from her multidisciplinary background, including her past work as a researcher at Microsoft Innovation Labs and as a teacher at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Segal, who recently exhibited at the Venice Biennale, is developing an installation that offers a new interpretation of George Washington’s 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island.

The piece weaves together key phrases from Washington’s affirmation of his commitment to religious liberty with the reflections of Museum visitors collected from our It’s Your Story recording booths. Both Washington’s words and the contemporary commentary speak to the significance of religious freedom and to the continuing role we all play in its preservation.

‘Twas the Night Before Hanukkah A New Holiday Music Experience Some might call Irving Berlin, a cantor’s son, the “father of Christmas music.” His holiday classic, White Christmas, one of many written and recorded by twentieth-century Jewish composers, helped usher Jewish songwriters into mainstream American culture. ’ Twas the Night Before Hanukkah, a new installation at the Museum, provides context for the far-reaching impact of Jewish artists who wrote, performed, and popularized Christmas

Photo by Arnon Fisher

An Israeli Artist Interprets Washington’s Letter

Liat Segal in her studio.

According to Segal, the “old still echoes while the new is written, just as Jewish immigrants in the new world had to reinvent their Jewish practices and ‘rewrite’ their old ways.”

Scattered Light pairs the old with the new through the use of a wand embedded with LED lights that move over a photosensitive surface, “printing” Washington’s words along with those of Museum visitors. The texts fade away over time, allowing new content to appear, creating an ever-evolving dialogue between history and the present.

“What makes this installation so exciting is its weaving together of cutting-edge technology with history, and the thoughts and reflections of our visitors, creating a whole new kind of museum experience,” says Dr. Josh Perelman, the Museum’s chief curator and director of exhibitions.

Scattered Light will be on view through Summer 2015.

and Hanukkah music. The installation’s joyous soundtrack to the holiday season includes music recorded by Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Theodore Bikel, comedian Mickey Katz, the Ramones, and many other performers of a variety of musical styles, from klezmer and folk to jazz and electronica.

This hit parade of holiday favorites and rediscovery of lost gems, offered in collaboration with the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation, opened November 4 and runs through March 1, 2015.

Visitors to ’Twas can cozy up to the music at a series of listening stations set up as comfy, retro-style dens. Each station is equipped with curated iPads with streaming music videos and photos of Museum artifacts from record album covers to sheet music.

This holiday season, visitors can sit back and relax in one of the dens and look out onto historic Independence Mall to see a multistory menorah, and maybe even a “White Christmas.”

Image: Courtesy of the Idelsohn Society

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Calendar of Events

Photo by Matthew Christopher

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE MUSEUM • FALL/WINTER

Feb 2015 The Jewish Doctor: A Brief History Sunday, Feb. 1 • 4 pm Free In partnership with the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania

Second Sunday Family Activities Sunday, Feb. 8 • 10 am – 3 pm

Dec 2014 Quarterly Curator Tour Tuesday, Dec. 2 • 8 – 10 am Free for Members at the Sponsor Level ($500) and above

Hebrew Calligraphy and the Gilded Word Workshop (Beginners) Tuesday, Dec. 2 • 6 – 8 pm $45/$35 for Members Registration deadline: Nov. 26

It’s High Time I Said Something: Martha Graham Cracker’s Intervention at the Museum An original cabaret (see article on page 7)

Wednesday, Dec. 3 • 7 pm Thursday, Dec. 4 • 7 pm Saturday, Dec. 6 • 7 pm and 10 pm $18/$15 for Members Recommended for ages 16 and up.

Hebrew Calligraphy and the Gilded Word Workshop (Advanced) Sunday, Dec. 7 • 2 – 4 pm $45/$35 for Members Registration deadline: Dec. 4

Members Quarterly Book Club, The Museum of Extraordinary Things Sunday, Dec. 7 • 11 am Free

Words Off the Page: An Evening with Jewish American Poets Wednesday, Dec. 10 • 7 pm $10/$8 for Members

Second Sunday Family Activities Sunday, Dec. 14 • 10 am – 3 pm

Free with Museum admission.

Free with Museum admission.

Presidents’ Day at NMAJH Monday, Feb. 16 • 10 am – 5 pm

Young Friends: Cocktails and Candle Lighting Thursday, Dec. 18 • 7 pm

Free

$25/$18 for Young Friends Members

‘Twas the Night with the Idelsohn Society Wednesday, Feb. 25 • 7 pm

Being ______ at Christmas Annual Family Day of Fun Thursday, Dec. 25 Museum hours: 10 am – 5 pm

$12/$10 for Members

$12 Adults/Free for Members $5 Children 12 and younger/Free for kids of Family Level Members and above

Young Friends Masquerade Ball: Celebrating Purim Saturday, March 7

Jan 2015 Second Sunday Family Activities Sunday, Jan. 11 • 10 am – 3 pm Free with Museum admission.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Day Monday, Jan. 19 • 10 am – 5 pm Free

Opening Event for Liat Segal: Scattered Light Wednesday, Jan. 28 • 5 – 8 pm (see article on page 11)

Free

Young Friends: Curated Cocktails with Liat Segal Thursday, Jan. 29 • 6 – 8pm $12/Free for Young Friends Members

Save the Date

Members Quarterly Book Club Sunday, March 8 Quarterly Curator Tour Tuesday, March 10 Symposium celebrating Solomon Schechter’s life and legacy, featuring author Dara Horn Monday, March 16 Presented by the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania

Third Annual Freedom Seder Revisited Wednesday, March 25 Women in American Jewish History Thematic Tours Throughout March Check NMAJH.org for details.

Check NMAJH.org/PublicPrograms for additional details and to purchase tickets. Advance registration is highly recommended for both free and ticketed programs. Students always get the Member price.

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For the Love of the Game Houston Astros Pitcher Josh Zeid and Chasing Dreams Some kids collect baseball cards; others aspire to be pictured on them. At 13, Josh Zeid dreamed of becoming a professional ballplayer. At his bar mitzvah he paid tribute to the baseball greats who inspired him: Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax.

His admiration remains vivid. “Robinson didn’t stand idly by when race relations were at an all-time dangerous level. He was ready to break barriers.

Koufax stood tall when it came to [observing] Jewish holidays; even in the World Series and wouldn’t pitch because he didn’t feel it was right.”

Zeid’s own pride led him to sign on to play for Team Israel for the World Baseball Classic. “I’m not afraid to wear my Jewish star every day to the field,” he says.

At 27, Zeid is a pitcher for the Houston Astros.* One of the yarmulkes his mother Karen hand painted for his baseball-themed bar mitzvah is displayed in Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American, along with 130 other original objects that chart how Jews and other minorities used baseball to move from the margins of American society to its core.

“Wow! It’s so incredible to have Josh represented with the same players that he dreamed about, his role models,” his mother Karen Zeid kvells.

When Karen and her husband Ira traveled from Connecticut to see Chasing Dreams, they felt “an immediate affinity to the way the Museum tells stories of American Jewish families like ours. We felt connected to our roots,” says Karen.

“Chasing Dreams shows a range of ballplayers from different backgrounds— Polish Americans, Italians, Asians—who all faced and overcame challenges when they immigrated to this country. It doesn’t just teach you about baseball; it teaches you never to give up.”

An Ongoing Story “Josh’s experiences are key to understanding how Chasing Dreams is a continuously evolving, contemporary story, not simply a historical one,” says Ivy Weingram, associate curator and co-curator of the exhibition.

Along with the Zeids, fans from across the country and around the world contributed to Chasing Dreams. Through an ambitious public collecting project, many shared memories and photos on a Tumblr site created specifically for the exhibition. Some of these mementos became part of Chasing Dreams, including the jacket of St. Louis hot dog vendor Esther Schimmel and a photo from 1950 of Sandy Koufax at summer camp.

These artifacts—together with a full slate of films, lectures, conversations, and courses for children and adults—sparked nationwide interest and resulted in a significant boost in Museum attendance. Currently, Chasing Dreams is gaining national exposure; it travels to Cleveland in 2015 and Los Angeles in 2016 (see sidebar at right).

Zeid Family Image, Father’s Day weekend at Minute Maid Park in Houston, TX. Courtesy of Karen Zeid

TO TRAVEL! April 2015 Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage: The Museum of Diversity & Tolerance, Beachwood, OH

April 2016 Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA

POP-UP E X H I B I T I O N** September 2014 Temple Ohabei Shalom, Brookline, MA

June 2015 Jewish Museum Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI * * Freestanding panel exhibition featuring Chasing Dreams stories and photos only.

To see the most updated Chasing Dreams travel schedule, please reference chasingdreams.nmajh.org/ national-tour. If you’d like to bring Chasing Dreams to your community, please contact Ivy Weingram at iweingram@nmajh.org.

*After two foot surgeries in August 2014, Zeid is on the disabled list until the 2015 season.

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Reflecting on Success ANNUAL REPORT • FISCAL YEAR 2014 (JULY 1, 2013 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2014)

The Museum

Special exhibition

EXPANDED ACCESSIBILITY

54% of the Museum’s members live outside

of a fifty-mile radius of the Museum, speaking to our true national presence.

and made visiting easier than ever before by introducing more than sixty free or Pay What You Wish days, and staying open late for extended evening hours on selected days throughout the year.

Generated a high degree of visibility and international press coverage, including articles in BBC News Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

And

The number of Young Friends

17% Family-Friendly Programs

17% In the Community

INCREASED BY

16% Young Friends

19% L ectures, Film Screenings, Performances, and Discussions

MEMBERS

400%

17% Adult Education

SINCE 2012

significantly growing the Museum’s young professional cohort.

More than

14% Member Events

The Museum presented a robust calendar of more than 100 programs that included film screenings, exhibition openings, family-friendly days, continuing education courses, and special exhibition companion programming.

8,400 students

from public, independent, parochial, and Jewish day schools, visited the Museum last school year, a 21% increase compared with the previous year.

$1.6M

Our 2014 Gala events in New York and Philadelphia raised a combined

$1.6 million

in celebration of Chasing Dreams, including the Museum’s inaugural New York Gala.

The Museum developed three new baseball-themed curricular units for K-12 students—aligned with Common Core Standards—examining a variety of history and social studies topics through the lens of our nation’s pastime.

Plus The Museum received a highly-competitive

$300,000

grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American.

The Museum broke attendance records on Father’s Day with its Chasing Dreams Mall Extravaganza, a baseball-themed block party.

THE DIRECTOR’S FUND RICHARD WITTEN, Museum board member and his wife Lisa, of Mamaroneck, New York have established The Director’s Fund, and have committed to match up to $250,000, dollar for dollar, in new commitments.

The fund will enable the Museum director to designate resources toward the most cutting-edge and creative opportunities, as well as ongoing institutional priorities. For more information about The Director’s Fund, please contact Jim Gerhardt, chief advancement officer at jgerhardt@nmajh.org or 215.923.3811 x133.

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MANY THANKS TO OUR GENEROUS DONORS

Pledges and cash gifts made in fiscal year 2014 (July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014).

BOARD MEMBERS

$100,000 to $1,000,000+

NMAJH Officers

Steven A. and Alexandra M. Cohen Foundation Betsy and Philip Darivoff Richard A. and Susan P. Friedman Family Foundation Katz Foundation Sidney Kimmel Foundation Bennett S. LeBow National Endowment for Humanities Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation Roberta and Ernest Scheller, Jr. Marc and Diane Spilker Foundation Leesa and Leon Wagner, The Wagner Family Foundation Harriet and Larry Weiss Etta Winigrad Lisa and Richard Witten Renee and Joseph Zuritsky

$50,000 to $99,999 Arete Foundation Christina and Lance Funston John P. and Anne Welsh McNulty Foundation MJS Foundation, Inc. The Neubauer Family Foundation Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Lyn M. Ross Marcia and Ron Rubin Arden and Ira Saligman

$25,000 to $49,999 Ben & Zelda Cohen Charitable Foundation, Inc. Robert Lloyd Corkin Charitable Foundation Sandy and Steve Cozen The Andrew R. Heyer and Mindy B. Heyer Foundation The Honickman Family Foundation The Kraus Family Foundation Los Angeles Dodgers Samuel P. Mandell Foundation MLB Advanced Media Office of the Commissioner of Baseball PLM Foundation Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation Susan and Stephen Rade The Edward John and Patricia Rosenwald Foundation Eva & Marvin Schlanger Family Foundation May M. Spirt Charitable Remainder Trust Robbi and Bruce Toll Carroll and Charlotte Weinberg Charitable Foundation Inc. Marian and Norman Wolgin Roy J. Zuckerberg

$10,000 to $24,999 Susanna Lachs Adler and Dean Adler Allen & Company LLC

Ann and Steven Ames Baltimore Orioles Harold & Renee Berger Foundation Blank Rome LLP Rita and Charles Bronfman The Solomon and Sylvia Bronstein Foundation Chicago Cubs Baseball Club, LLC Christie’s Clayman Family Foundation Cozen O’Connor Renee and Lester Crown The Dobkin Family Foundation Pamela and Alec Ellison Evergreen Charitable Fund Goldman, Sachs & Company Goldring Family Foundation Grant Thornton LLP Myrna and Steve Greenberg Hess Foundation, Inc. Julie Goldman and Alan Hoffman Elizabeth and Matthew Kamens The Eleanor M. and Herbert D. Katz Family Foundation Inc. Elissa and Thomas Katz The Kestenbaum Family Foundation Linda M. Knapp Trust Sarah and Eric Lane Jeffrey Lurie Family Foundation The David and Sondra Mack Foundation Inc. The William and Phyllis Mack Family Foundation Inc. Macy’s The McLean Contributionship Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan Paul S. Nadler Foundation The New York Mets Foundation, Inc. The New York Yankees University of Pennsylvania Proskauer Rose LLP Norman Raab Foundation Kathy Fields-Rayant and Garry Rayant Rothschild Family Foundation Rowan Family Foundation Inc. Rubin Family Foundation Lorraine and George Rubin Barbara Spiro Ryan and Robert Ryan Alice Saligman and Klaus Brinkmann Susan and Clifford Schlesinger Seed the Dream Foundation Connie Smukler Lindy Snider and Larry Kaiser The Snider Foundation St. Louis Cardinals, LLC Swartz Foundation Tanner, Maintain, Blatt & Glynn Toronto Blue Jays

$5,000 to $9,999 Tracy and Dennis Albers Arizona Diamondbacks Carol Auerbach and Al Berger Miriam G. Bernstein Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC Helen and Jack Bershad The Brown Foundation

Canada Dry Charina Endowment Fund, Inc. Chicago White Sox The Abby and David Cohen Family Foundation D. Walter Cohen Curtis Family Foundation, Inc. Delaware North Companies Roberta and Carl Dranoff Bonnie and Donald Dwares EisnerAmper LLP The Fine Foundation Anna Lamm Globe Richard J. Green Andrea and Brad Heffler Annette Heyman Foundation Insperity Ellen and Robert Kapito Sidney Kohl Family Foundation, Inc. The Lazarus Charitable Trust Betty and Philip Leifer Annette M. and Theodore N. Lerner Family Foundation, Inc. Hadassah R. Levin Fran and Leon Levy Edward and Sandra Meyer Foundation Miami Marlins Robert E. Nederlander Sr. The Oakland Athletics Community Fund Offit Capital Ellen and Mark Oster Peco Energy Company The Philadelphia Cultural Fund The Philadelphia Phillies Donna and James Pohlad Lisa Popowich and Jonathan Stein Lorraine and David Popowich Red Sox Foundation The Honorable Edward G. Rendell Ruth Sarner-Libros Melissa and Douglas Sayer Texas Rangers Tisch Foundation, Inc.

$2,000 to $4,999 Elie M. Abermayer Dennis Alter The Morris, Max and Sarah Altman Memorial Trust Laurence M. Baer Ivy L. Barsky Fred and Bryna Berman Family Foundation Inc. Richard N. Berman Foundation Cecilie and Eugene Block Sandra A. Block Blum Family Foundation Boyds Philadelphia The Broad Foundation Linda and Don Brodie Louis N. Cassett Foundation The Julius & Ray Charlestein Foundation, Inc. Louise and Robert Cohen Melvin Cutler Rhoda and Michael Danziger Dilworth Paxson LLP

Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg Family Foundation, Inc. Sherry and Kenneth Endelson Executive Protective Services Feinstein Center for American Jewish History Lynn and Arnold Feld Phyllis and Gary Finkelstein Marian and Elliot Fisher Suzanne and Lawrence Fishman Abbie Green Friedman Lois and Richard Frieder Tracey and Patrick Gallagher The Edwin M. Gilberg Family Foundation Melanie and Steven Glass Rosalie and Harvey Goldberg Cindy and Bennett Golub Gwen and Alan Goodman Harriet and Bernard Gross Iris and Igal Hami The Hassel Foundation Lorraine and Eric Hirschberg HUB International Indian Trail Charitable Foundation Jamie and Warren Klein Paul Kolaj Lynn and Charles Kramer Elaine and Manny Landau Los Angeles Angels Michael Margolis Claire and Myron Meadow Miriam and Stanton Meltzer Minnesota Twins Linda and H. Laddie Montague Aileen and Alvin Murstein National Basketball Association Ofer Nemirovsky Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Philadelphia Eagles Jill and Jon Powell Daniel Promislo The Rittenhouse Foundation Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer Jacqueline and Sigmund Rolat Evelyn and Edward Rosen Jeannette and Richard Rosen Ellyn Rosenthal and Paul Sacher Michael J. Ross Miriam and Allan Schneirov Jill and David Shulman Avi Silberstein The Paul and Emily Singer Family Foundation Smithsonian Affiliations Judith and Robert Snyder Specter Foundation Sidney J. Stein Foundation Sterling Mets, LP Lisa and Steven Tananbaum Family Foundation Lynne Tarnopol The Under Armour Foundation, Inc. The Honorable Constance H. Williams and Dr. Sankey V. Williams The Elaine Wolk Kaufman Charitable Fund Susie and Robert Zeff

For a donor listing including all member levels, please visit NMAJH.org/annualreport.

Philip M. Darivoff, Co-Chairman Ronald Rubin, Co-Chairman Lyn M. Ross, Honorary Chair Stephen A. Cozen, Vice President Andrew R. Heyer, Vice President Jeffrey A. Honickman, Vice President Matthew Kamens, Vice President Thomas O. Katz, Vice President Miriam Schneirov, Vice President Richard E. Witten, Vice President Joseph S. Zuritsky, Vice President Ira Saligman, Treasurer Lisa B. Popowich, Secretary George M. Ross z”l, Founding Chair

Trustees Susanna Lachs Adler Harold Berger Betsy Z. Cohen Elijah S. Dornstreich Carl E. Dranoff Abbie Green Friedman Alan J. Hoffman Sharon Tobin Kestenbaum Seymour G. Mandell Anne Welsh McNulty Mitchell L. Morgan Mark Oster Raymond Perelman Marc Porter Daniel Promislo Clifford Schlesinger Barbara Spiro Ryan Lindy Snider Robbi Toll Constance H. Williams Roy J. Zuckerberg D. Walter Cohen, Chairman Emeritus Ruth Sarner-Libros, President Emerita Samuel J. Savitz, Trustee Emeritus Edward Rosen z”l, Trustee Emeritus Gwen Goodman, Executive Director Emerita Ivy L. Barsky, CEO and Gwen Goodman Director

National Leadership Council Charles Bronfman (New York, NY) Ambassador Edward Elson (Palm Beach, FL) Milton Fine (Pittsburgh, PA) Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg (Bronx, NY) J. Ira Harris (Palm Beach, FL) Senator Joseph Lieberman (Hartford, CT) Newton Minow (Chicago, IL) Albert Small (Washington, DC) Edward Snider (Philadelphia, PA) Fred Wilpon (New York, NY) Roy Zuckerberg (New York, NY)

FALL 2014

15

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NMAJH-Beacon-Magazine-Issue1 Fall2014-FINAL.crw1.indd 16

WHAT is

it?

Pictured here is a detail of an object from our collection. Can you tell what the object is? Submit your guess to membership@nmajh.org and be entered for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to our Museum Store!

Watch for the answer to be revealed in our January e-newsletter!

10/30/14 11:56 AM