Hey ho! Let's go!

Josh is the Museum’s deputy director , but more importantly for this blog, he is also the Museum’s historian. He received his graduate education at New York University, studying in the joint program in American history and Judaic studies, and his dissertation is Choreographing Identity: Modern Dance and American Jewish Life, 1924-1954. I like to kid him about his dissertation topic, but he assures me that the interest level in modern dance and American Jewish life is above three figures, and maybe even into the mid-three figures, so what do I know?

Meanwhile, as historian he is overseeing the development of the core exhibition for the new Museum. Why a National Museum of American Jewish History, I asked him. “There is no institution devoted to exhibiting and educating the public about the American Jewish experience. Nor are there any major museums that take on ethnic history in this country. There are archives, and there are museums, that, as part of their story, include the American Jewish experience, but there is no single site under one roof with the sole focus of more than 350 years of American Jewish life. This is the gap it fills,” he said.

Fair enough. But what is this Museum going to give me that I haven’t got before? What is it going to mean for the average Joe, or Jew, so to speak? “Two things. It tells the story of coming to America, what it means to be a member of an ethnic community as well as a religious community, and how these experiences have shaped and been shaped by American Jews,” Josh said.

He also said, “The story we tell in our museum is part of the larger national story. Sitting on Independence Mall, steps from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, we are conscious that freedom is an essential part of the exhibition’s narrative. But, in the exhibition, we are dealing with freedom in a complex way, not as a historical utopia, but as complicated set of ideals we face as individuals, as communities, and as a nation. Almost anyone can identify with that.”

Josh went on to say that artifacts will be used with strong storytelling about the lives of people, and combined with cutting edge technology.

Before he drifted too far into Museum/historian speak, I asked, “What about Dylan? Will there be something about Dylan? How about Joey (born Jeffrey Ross Hyman) Ramone? We gotta’ have Joey Ramone in the Museum. And Dylan.”


Photograph of Joey Ramone by Susan Leh, courtesy of Michael Leh

Josh was sympathetic but couldn’t make any promises. He did say that the exhibition would include all sorts of cultural figures, both famous and infamous, and that the second floor of the Museum, one full floor, will be devoted to Jewish life in America after World War II.

A whole floor, eh? There should be plenty of room for Dylan and Joey and a lot of other greats. I’ll be staying to top of it.