American Dream Recognized With Founding Member Gift
Simon and Esther Karp came from Horodenka, the same formerly Polish town now part of Ukraine, both in search of a better life. They came to America through Ellis Island, she as a child with her family and he as a teenager.
"They were immigrants. Their story was just one of many. I made this contribution to honor their memory and to honor the successes that life in America provided them," said Robert Karp, the 77-year-old sole survivor of their four sons. Robert and his wife, Sue, recently became Museum Founding Members.
Simon Karp left Europe in 1912 at the age of 18 to avoid being drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Empire army. Simon followed his Uncle Max, who had come to the new country before him to Toledo, OH, where Max soon owned a small retail clothing shop. After first working at Willy's Motor Company, and then peddling retail out of a house front, Simon decided to take advantage of the Polish he spoke and open his own store, in Toledo's Polish neighborhood. This store expanded into three and remained his business for his whole life.
Esther Faye Kolnick, Robert's mother, came to America at age 12. Her family settled in New York where she was raised. She later became a manicurist for Wanamaker's department store. Among her clients was Helen Keller, Robert said.
When Esther's aunt, then married to Max Karp, told her of a 28-year-old single man who had a business and his own car, Esther went to Toledo to meet him. As Robert puts it, "My father was a good catch." After marrying Simon Karp, they became American citizens and remained in Toledo for the rest of their lives.
With their Founding Membership gift, Robert and Sue Karp joined the growing list of approximately 4,000 people from across the country who have supported the membership campaign of the National Museum of American Jewish History.
By making a Founding Member gift, individuals will support what will be an iconic institution on Independence Mall, as well as a leading national education and cultural center.
Founding Memberships may be purchased with a gift of $54. Founding Members who make a minimum gift of $90 will receive a limited edition print depicting world-renowned architect James Polshek's design for the new Museum (as seen on the E-Newsletter masthead). Founding Members will be able to participate in the Museum's opening celebrations and to visit the NMAJH free whenever they choose throughout the membership term. Their names will also be permanently listed in the Museum.
Visit the Museum's website for information on becoming a Founding Member and the benefits provided at each level of donation, or call the development office at 215.923.3811 x 104.
For information on ways to participate in the Museum's Capital Campaign, contact Irv Hurwitz, the Museum's Director of Institutional Advancement, at 215.923.3811 x133 or via email at ihurwitz@nmajh.org.
Candlesticks A Symbol of Immigration
After a member of their family disappeared during a pogrom, Shlomo and Gittel Shapiro fled their small Ukrainian town along with their six children. The family arrived in Philadelphia after a stormy ocean journey in 1887, with a pair of brass Shabbat candlesticks and assorted cooking implements. While new American cookware soon replaced the old pots and pans, generations of the family continued to treasure the candlesticks (pictured).
The candlesticks will appear on the third floor titled, "Dreams of Freedom," in the "Arrival" gallery. Spanning the 1880s through the 1920s, "Arrival" will primarily focus on the process of entering the United States during the period of mass migration. In the gallery, visitors will see, among other things, a large map showing the places where immigrants began their journey to the United States. There will also be a case highlighting why people left and the things that they brought with them. "These items indicate their significant journey within Europe and the considerable bureaucratic scrutiny they underwent even before getting on a boat, " said Josh Perelman, the Museum's historian and deputy director of programming
"Exhibiting the items people brought with them when they traveled to America provides a rich opportunity to highlight stories of immigrants and their families, all of whom made choices about whether or not to leave Europe and what physical artifacts of their heritage to bring with them," he said.
The Museum is currently searching for artifacts to expand its collection of Jewish Americana. The premise of NMAJH collecting is that history affects all people and that everyone has valuable stories to tell. The collection's geographic focus is national, and the Museum has artifacts which date from the Colonial period to the present day from all areas of the United States. The wide variety of artifacts in the collection vividly evokes the diversity of the American Jewish experience.
If you have an object you'd like the Museum to consider for donation, please contact Rebecca Levine, the Museum's associate registrar, at rlevine@nmajh.org or at 215.923.3811 x 138.
Atrium in New Museum Revealed
The scaffolding that has been filling the atrium in the new Museum has been removed, revealing the dramatic space that is meant to symbolize aspects of the American Jewish experience.
"There is a theme of stitching throughout the atrium space and other spaces in the Museum," explained Robert Young, an associate partner at Polshek Partnership, the architects for the new Museum. "Jews cameto America from manydifferent places and wanted to still hold strongly onto their cultural memory. Coming to a new country they were exposed to new customs, new language and new freedoms. While the changes often caused ruptures within the continuity of family traditions, the new freedoms that America offered
gave the opportunity to reconnect those ruptures in the context of a new land. In a way, the atrium space represents an ocean, a void, a divide, but also the integrity of the Jewish community that stitched these immigrants back together no matter where they were from. The bridges reconnect the ruptures, threading together the stories of American Jews.
Finishes on stairways, ceilings, railings, and paint are well underway and the millwork on the stairs and bridges crossing the atrium (pictured) is 95 percent complete on all levels.
For an up-to-date picture of the construction site that refreshes every 15 minutes, view our Museum-Cam. To see additional photos of the Museum's construction like those above, click here.
For information on ways to participate in the Museum's Capital Campaign, contact Irv Hurwitz, the Museum's Director of Institutional Advancement, at 215.923.3811 x133 or via email at
ihurwitz@nmajh.org.
Chemical Heritage Foundation And NMAJH Explore The Chemistry of Kosher
The Museum and the Chemical Heritage Foundation are sponsoring "The Chemistry of Kosher," a lecture feat
uring Dr. Roger Horowitz on Wednesday, March 17, at 6:30 p.m.
Approximately half the items in American supermarkets are certified kosher. What led the food industry to embrace kosher laws and rabbis to
study food chemistry? Did modern food change kosher, or did kosher change modern food? 
Dr. Horowitz, Ph.D, the Chemical Heritage Foundation's resident Gordon Cain Fellow, is writing a book that explores these questions. Dr. Horowitz is associate director of the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, DE. He is routinely approached by journalists for observations on issues pertaining to food, including those from the "The Washington Post," "National Public Radio, the BBC," "The History Channel," "The Nation" and "The Philadelphia Inquirer."
Dr. Horowitz's previously authored "Putting Meat on the American Table: Taste, Technology, Transformation." He also wrote the entry on meat in the "Oxford Encyclopedia" of Food and "Drink in America."
Advance registration is required. RSVP by Friday, March 12 to
www.chemheritage.org/FellowInFocus. Please reply immediately. Seating is limited.
The Chemical Heritage Foundation is located at 315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.
Museum Takes Part in Two Philadelphia Cultural Events
In commemoration of Women's History Month, the Museum is co-sponsoring the Philadelphia premiere screening of "Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags" with the Philadelphia Jewish Labor Committee, The Coalition of Labor Union Woman, and The Kehilla for Secular Jews.
This HBO feature documentary by Marc Levin explores the rise and fall of New York's fabled schmatta (rag) trade as a microcosm for the economic shocks that have changed the lives of Americans. It discusses how NYC has b
een the gateway for many immigrants to the American Dream and is now in danger of disappearing.
The film and program will take place Thursday, March 4, 2010, 6-9 p.m. at the William Penn House, 1919 Chestnut St, Philadelphia.
Following the film, facilitators will lead a discussion with the
audience on the provocative issues the film raises.
The screening is free and open to the public. Light dinner and refreshments will be served.
Donations are encouraged to cover the cost of refreshments. RSVP: Roz Spigel, jlcras@aol.com or 215-587-6822.
Additionally, the Museum will be a part of the 2nd annual LimmudPhilly Learningfest taking place Saturday and 
Sunday March 6-7 in Center City Philadelphia.
Josh Perelman, the Museum's deputy director of programming and historian, will make a presentation, "Making History; The New National Museum of American Jewish History," at Limmud on Sunday beginning at 11:00 a.m. There will also be an informational table about the Museum for Limmud participants.
LimmudPhilly is a unique opportunity to explore and celebrate the many paths of Jewish learning. The program brings together volunteers from the full spectrum of the Jewish experience to build a program of learning for everyone. LimmudPhilly presenters are world renowned teachers and passionate educators from the community who come to Limmud to teach, learn, act, sing, and create.
LimmudPhilly is for all ages. Young Limmud offers dynamic Jewish learning experiences for children aged 3 to 10.
Museum Shop Filled With Passover Items
Keep The Museum Shop in mind when preparing for your Passover seders. Items such as this Half Round Passover Haggadah (pictured) are a great addition to any seder table. The Haggadah was the winner of the prestigious SAPPI European Printer of the Year Award. It is sold both in the Shop and in its online store.
This book is the result of the combination of longstanding traditions in Jewish holiday books and the most advanced printing techniques. The Haggadah is printed on the finest paper, in full color with selective ultra-violet lamination. When the book is open, it assumes the shape of shmurah matzah (round matzah).
The Haggadah represents the 3,500 year-old cultural roots of the people of Israel, and highlights the adherence to quality in design and production in Israel today.
Among the other Passover items sold in the Museum Shop are seder plates, kiddush cups, matzah plates, and children's Hagaddahs.
Shop in person or browse Hanukkah items online at www.judaicashop.net. For more information e-mail Eva Schlanger or Elaine Silverman, or call the Museum Shop at 215.923.0262.
The Museum Shop is open Monday-Thursday 10 a.m.-
5 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; and Sunday 12 noon - 5 p.m.
Proceeds from the Museum Shop support the National Museum of American Jewish History.
Museum Exhibition Listens to Visitors' Points of View
Visitors to the Museum's current exhibition, "Shaping Space, Making Meaning," are asked a variety of questions ra
nging from how they would like stories in the new Museum to be told to how they feel about American Jewish life today. One way these questions are asked is through interactive touch screens.
The question, "What activities would you like to do most in our new Museum?" presents visitors with many choices including "share family stories and memories," "listen to a guided audio tour on a cell phone," and "view exciting films about American Jewish History" among others.
The answers visitors provide help exhibition designers understand how Museum visitors want to actively be involved with the stories that are being told. It also gives them an idea of how people feel they can best relate to, and learn from, the Museum's exhibitions.
The touch screens also feature a short quiz to help the Museum learn about its audience's knowledge of American Jewish history.
Admission is free to "Shaping Space, Making Meaning," which also has design sketches, computer-generated images, video and text that also offer an insider's look at the process of developing a landmark exhibition about more than 350 years of American Jewish life.
The NMAJH's exhibition design team is in the process of creating the 22,000-square-foot exhibition for the new Museum.
Tickets for Readers to Arthur Miller Play
The Museum is teaming up with Isis Productions to offer five pairs of tickets to a production of Arthur Miller's "Broken Glass" at the Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5.
The show takes place in 1938 Brooklyn and revolves around the story of Sylvia Gellberg who suddenly becomes paralyzed after reading reports in the newspaper concerning Krystallnacht. At a time when most Americans believe the Germans wouldn't let the Nazi's gain control, Sylvia feels something should be done to stop them. Arthur Miller peels away at the layers of the characters' lives in this exploration of what it means to be Jewish and American in 1938.
The show, directed by Neill Hartley, runs from March 11 - April 4, at the Walnut Street Theatre, 825 Walnut Street, Philadelphia.
Group and student rates are available. Student rush rates are available 10 minutes before performances begin.
To receive a free pair of tickets, e-mail rrweisband@aol.com. Tickets may be purchased online at https://isis.ticketleap.com/.
