Jewish Museum Milwaukee
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Jewish Museum Milwaukee is located in
Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
,
Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, USA. The Jewish Museum Milwaukee's mission is to preserve and present the Jewish experience through the lens of Greater Milwaukee, and to celebrate the continuum of Jewish heritage and culture. The archives, exhibitions, programs and publications inspire public appreciation for the diversity of Jewish life in a local and global historic context.


Description

Jewish Museum Milwaukee, a program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, was founded in 2008. This milestone marked over twenty years of collecting, archiving, and exhibiting. The Museum's archives was established by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation Women's Division's Archives/Roots Committee in the 1980s, which drove the establishment of the Milwaukee Jewish Historical Society in 1997. Jewish Museum Milwaukee's core exhibit explores the history of the Jewish experiences from both a local and global perspective. Each year the museum curates up to three special exhibits based on cultural, historic or artistic significance. The Museum's tag line is "Where Conversations Happen". The Museum builds bridges to and with diverse groups based on shared historical experiences and explores contemporary issues through the lens of history, art and culture. Based on the Jewish tenent of Tikkun Olam (reapir the world) the museum focuses on social justice issues through its exhibits and programs. Jewish Museum Milwaukee's archives house a significant collection of photographs, manuscripts, oral histories and newspaper clippings that record the organizational, educational, cultural, social, philanthropic and business activities of the Jewish community in Milwaukee. Primarily donated by local residents, these materials tell the story of the Jewish immigrant experience, from the first arrival of German and Eastern European Jews in the 1800s to those who left the former Soviet Union and settled in Milwaukee in the 1970s. Jewish Museum Milwaukee is located in the Milwaukee Jewish Federation's Helfaer Community Service Building designed by
Edward Durell Stone Edward Durell Stone (March 9, 1902 – August 6, 1978) was an American architect known for the formal, highly decorative buildings he designed in the 1950s and 1960s. His works include the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, the Museo de A ...
, architect of the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...
in Washington D.C. Jewish Museum Milwaukee is closed on Saturdays and for Jewish festivals and holy days:
Rosh Hashana Rosh HaShanah ( he, רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, , literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , lit. "day of shouting/blasting") It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days (, , " ...
,
Yom Kippur Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day's ...
,
Sukkot or ("Booths, Tabernacles") , observedby = Jews, Samaritans, a few Protestant denominations, Messianic Jews, Semitic Neopagans , type = Jewish, Samaritan , begins = 15th day of Tishrei , ends = 21st day of Tishre ...
,
Shemini Atzeret Shemini Atzeret (—"Eighth
ay of Ay, AY or variants, may refer to: People * Ay (pharaoh), a pharaoh of the 18th Egyptian dynasty * Merneferre Ay, a pharaoh of the 13th Egyptian dynasty * A.Y. (musician) (born 1981), a Tanzanian "bongo flava" artist * A.Y, stage name of Ayo Makun ...
Assembly") is a Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday. It is celebrated on the 22nd day of the Hebrew calendar, Hebrew month of Tishrei in the Land of Israel, and on the 22nd and 23rd outside the Land, usually coi ...
,
Simchat Torah Simchat Torah or Simhat Torah (, lit., "Rejoicing with/of the Torah", Ashkenazi: ''Simchas Torah'') is a Jewish holiday that celebrates and marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, and the beginning of a new cycle. Simch ...
, first two and last two days of
Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that celebrates the The Exodus, Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Ancient Egypt, Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew calendar, He ...
, and
Shavuot (''Ḥag HaShavuot'' or ''Shavuos'') , nickname = English: "Feast of Weeks" , observedby = Jews and Samaritans , type = Jewish and Samaritan , begins = 6th day of Sivan (or the Sunday following the 6th day of Sivan i ...
.


Location

Jewish Museum of Milwaukee is located at 1360 N Prospect Avenue in Milwaukee. The Museum and Archives are situated within Milwaukee's museum district north of the downtown area, and a ten-minute walk from the Milwaukee Art Museum, the
Charles Allis Art Museum The Charles Allis Art Museum is a museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Charles Allis House. Allis Mansion history The Charles Allis Art Museum was originally the home of Milwaukee native C ...
, Discovery World, and the
Betty Brinn Children's Museum The Betty Brinn Children's Museum is a non-profit children's museum located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. About the Museum The museum is a "hands-on" exhibit based educational museum primarily targeted for children between the ages of 1 and 10. It inc ...
.


Exhibits


Stitching Histories from the Holocaust

This exhibit tells the story of Hedwig Strnad and her husband Paul through letters sent to a cousin in Milwaukee from Nazi-occupied
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
. Strnad created and included dress designs in the letters in the hope of obtaining visas. Both Strands were murdered in the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
, but Hedwig's dress designs survived and have been created by the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's costume shop and are included in the exhibit.


Sara Spira postcards

Presented with ''Stitching Histories from the Holocaust'' is a series of postal cards written by Sara Spira, a Polish-German Jewish woman who perished in the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. Spira lived in Leipzig, Germany for some time in the early
interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
. She lived in Leipzig with her husband Max until his death in 1920. While living in Leipzig, the couple's only child, a daughter named Mary, was born in 1918. After her husband's death, Spira made a living operating a dry goods store. Spira left Leipzig for Gorlice, Poland sometime before the outbreak of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, in the mid to late 1930s. Spira was deported from Germany to the Gorlice Ghetto in Poland from where she continued to write a series of postcards to her daughter who had emigrated to Wisconsin in 1938, until Spira perished in the holocaust. The postcards written by Spira have also been used as examples of the experience of a specific individual experiencing the Holocaust in a course taught at the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
.


External links

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References

{{reflist Museums in Milwaukee Jewish museums in the United States Ethnic museums in Wisconsin Jews and Judaism in Wisconsin