Greeetings!

Welcome to the electronic newsletter of the National Museum of American Jewish History. This newsletter is designed to keep you informed of exhibitions, programs and other activities of the NMAJH, the only Museum in the country exclusively presenting educational programs and experiences that preserve, explore and celebrate the history of the Jews in America.

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CONSTRUCTION MOVES FORWARD ON NEW MUSEUM

Following the official groundbreaking for the new Museum in September, construction commenced on the building on Independence Mall that will serve as the Museum's inspiring new home.

With the recent completion of demolition, INTECH, the new Museum's construction manager, began excavating the site and is now shoring up the hole with soil retention systems. The perimeter of the site must be secured otherwise the sides of the hole will give way.

After the perimeter is strengthened, the builder will pour the concrete for the Museum's foundation on which the structure of the building will rest. Soon after, structural steel will be erected and the profile of the Museum will begin to appear.

During construction, there are regular "working group" meetings with construction contractors, architects, exhibition designers, museum officials and various consultants. "These working groups are all working to ensure the Museum captures the history, dreams and visions of the American Jewish community, while ensuring it is relevant to all visitors," said Irv Hurwitz, director of institutional advancement.

For more information on the new Museum contact Irv at 215.923.3811 x133 of by e-mail.

Photo by Jeffrey E. Holder.


YOU TELL US, WE'LL TELL YOU
Visitors Give Storytelling Feedback at New Exhibition

"Can We Talk?," one of the interactive elements included in the Museum's new changing exhibition, Shaping Space, Making Meaning, asks visitors how they prefer to hear stories told.

The exhibit has six images, each with two versions of a story to go with them, one more personable, and one straight facts. These represent stories that will be included in the NMAJH's core exhibition when it opens in 2010, such as those of Emma Goldman, and Irving Berlin. Using voting slips visitors explain their preference. The answers to questions in the exhibition give the NMAJH's exhibition design team a sense of the opinions among visitors, and show if there are certain trends that can be discerned.

Other interactive elements in the exhibition include a forum asking questions having to do with contemporary American Jewish issues, touch screens to engage visitors in a conversation about the Museum's major themes of freedom, immigration, and religious tolerance, and a short quiz to help the Museum learn about its audiences' knowledge of American Jewish history.

In addition to the interactive elements, Shaping Space, Making Meaning has design sketches, computer-generated images, video and text that 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 under construction and scheduled to open in 2010.


MUSEUM SHOP AND ONLINE SITE DRESSED UP WITH PURIM ITEMS
Holiday Items For Sale

Though it is customary to stamp and rattle gragers whenever the name of Haman is mentioned during Purim, sounds of joy should be heard when visitors purchase these Humentashan plates (pictured), designed and handcrafted by Arlene Ancona. They are now featured in the Museum Shop's online store in time for the holiday that this year falls on March 21-22.

Ms. Ancona received her formal training at Parsons School of Design in New York, where she also taught ceramic design and surface design. After leaving Parsons, she set up her own studio where she designs and produces her pieces. When designing her work, which has been featured in several publications, she tries to combine function without sacrificing aesthetics. The inspiration for her Judaica pieces comes from her cultural background and her modern perspective.

These Purim plates are two of a variety of Purim related items for both adults and children being sold at the Museum Shop and at its online store. The Museum Shop carries Judaica from a variety of artists. Visit the Museum Shop to browse the large assortment of items in all price ranges. For more information contact Museum Shop Managers Eva Schlanger, or Elaine Silverman, or call the Museum Shop at 215.923.0262.


The Museum Shop is open Mondays-Thursdays 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Fridays 10 a.m.-3 p.m., and Sundays 12 noon - 5 p.m.Proceeds from the Museum Shop support the National Museum of American Jewish History.


MUSEUM AND FILM FESTIVAL OFFER
French Film Weekend Is March 1-2

The Museum and the Gershman Y are joining together to offer five sets of tickets to E-newsletter subscribers for the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival's French Weekend taking place the first weekend in March.

Featured during the French Weekend are two films, "Family Hero (le Heros de la Famille)," and "Bad Faith (Mauvaise Foi)." "Family Hero" tells the story of an assimilated Jewish family with North African roots, who inherit their father's magical cabaret in Nice. Throughout the film, they discover that they never really knew their parents.

Following the screening will be guest speaker Daniele Thomas Easton, director of France-Philadelphie and former honorary consul for France in Philadelphia and Wilmington.

French Weekend continues with "Bad Faith," a spunky comedy about the secret love affair of Clara and Ishmael, a Jew and a Muslim, though both are secular and egalitarian. When Clara becomes pregnant, their affair must be made public and they are suddenly faced with two families and two cultures who share their French Republican values.

Jean-Michel Rabate, professor of English and comparative literature and Penn, will be the guest speaker following the screening.

The Museum is a sponsor of the Jewish Film Festival's films about the American Jewish experience, including the New Filmmakers Weekend taking place this year March 22 through 23.

Among the films being shown are "Making Trouble: Three Generations of Funny Jewish Women," a film in which four of today's funniest women-Judy Gold, Cory Kahaney, Jessica Kirson and Jackie Hoffman sit in a kosher deli and talk about six of the greatest female comic performers, including Molly Picon, Fanny Brice, and Gilda Radner. The clips reveal what it means to be female, funny and Jewish.

Another film, "Enough," created by Zoe Greenberg as her bat mitzvah project, and which won the Princeton Prize in Race Relations for 2007, tells the story of five young people from different backgrounds who confront the taboo subjects of wealth, poverty, and class.

Other films being screened include "West Bank Story," "Unsettled," Ilona, Upstairs," and "A Hero in Heaven."

The first five people to e-mail oantsis@phillyjcc.com at the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival will receive two free tickets to either the Sunday 2 p.m. screening of "Family Hero" or the Sun., 7 p.m. screening of "Bad Faith." Write "French Film Tickets" in the subject line and include your name and address in the body of the e-mail.

Admission prices range from $10 to $12. Seniors and students with ID receive $3 off the single ticket price. For tickets and times of these or other films in the series call 215-446-3019 or visit the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival's website.

All films will be shown at the Gershman Y, 401 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival screens some of the most acclaimed feature films and documentaries of the year, by some of the finest filmmakers from around the world, including Brazil, Israel, France, Germany, Mexico and the USA.


NMAJH CO-SPONSORS PLAY READING WITH INTERACT THEATER COMPANY

The Museum will be hosting InterAct Theater Company's reading of Larry Loebell's play "House, Divided," on Mon., March 17, 6 p.m. The reading is free.

The play tells the story of the Goldstein family of Philadelphia, torn apart when older brother Louis decides to embrace Jewish Orthodoxy and move to Israel during the height of the Vietnam War. Betrayed and bewildered, his younger brother Douglas builds a life around peace activism. More than 20 later, Louis, now a retired officer of the Israeli army and Douglas, a senior director with Amnesty International, are divided by familial wounds and opposing religious and political beliefs. The brothers are forced to re-engage with one another when their sons make surprising life decisions of their own.

"House, Divided" is a challenging and timely examination of family, faith and politics, and how the desire to distance ourselves from our past may only bring it closer to home in the future.

Loebell is a four-time recipient of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, and a 2006 recipient of a new play commission from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. In addition to writing and teaching playwriting and dramaturgy at Arcadia University, Loebell works as a free-lance dramaturg.

The play reading is being held in conjunction with Shaping Space, Making Meaning, the new temporary exhibition at the Museum offering visitors the opportunity to learn how a museum creates a major exhibition and at the same time have input into developing the show prior to opening, which too allows visitors to explore contemporary Jewish issues/topics. For more information on "House, Divided," InterAct's website.

Founded in 1988, InterAct is now celebrating it's 20th anniversary. Its aim is to educate, as well as entertain its audiences, by producing world-class, thought-provoking productions, and by using theatre as a tool to foster positive social change in the school, the workplace and the community. Through its artistic and educational programs, InterAct seeks to make a significant contribution to the cultural life of Philadelphia and to the American theatre.



NMAJH SPONSORS PROGRESSIVE JEWISH MUSIC FESTIVAL
John Zorn Featured

Ars Nova Workshop is presenting five concerts sponsored by the NMAJH showcasing the progressive side of Jewish music and taking place March 1 through 4. Featured in the festival is the exceptional and dynamic work of composer, innovator, performer and MacArthur Fellow John Zorn (pictured).

Festival performances will be held in venues including International House Philadelphia, Society Hill Synagogue, and Kol Tzedek Synagogue. Zorn's first performance will include "John Zorn's The Dreamers," and "John Zorn and Essential Cinema," taking place on Sun., March 2, 2 p.m.. The first piece is a new and beautiful lyrical exploration of surf, exotica, easy listening and world beat sounds while the second features members of Electric Masada, founded by John Zorn, performing live scores to American experimental filmmakers' work.

Later that night at 8 p.m. John Zorn returns with an evening featuring his Masada songbook with a performance from Jon Zorn's Electric Masada, and opening sets by the Jamie Saft Trio and Eric Friedlander, both with acoustic interpretations of the songbook. Other performances at the festival include the Masada Guitars, Ayelet Rose Gottlieb/Anat Fort/the Michael Winograd Trio, and Daniel Blacksberg's Yiddish Sextet featuring Frank London.

The performances by Zorn and the other musicians are being billed by Ars Nova Workshop as the Radical Jewish Music Festival.

"As the Jewish people continue to grow into the 21st century," said Zorn, "they carry their culture along with them. Tradition, history and the past have always played a strong role in the life of the Jews but it is also important to think about the future. Just as jazz music has progressed from Dixieland to free jazz and beyond in a few short decades, and classical music went from tonality to chromaticism, noise and back again, it has occured to me that the same kind of growth should be possible-and is perhaps essential-for Jewish music. Questions arose, as did the need to address them.[...] the Radical Jewish Culture series is a first attempt at addressing some of these issues."

Ars Nova Workshop is a Philadelphia nonprofit jazz and experimental presenting organization. For dates, prices and times of the performances, visit the Ars Nova Workshop website.

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On March 12-15, 1972, a group of Jewish feminists who called themselves the Ezrat Nashim (Women's Help) appeared before the annual convention of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly. There they presented a document entitled, Jewish Women Call for Change, which listed a number of reforms demanding religious equality for women and men. The document read in part: "For three thousand years, one-half of the Jewish people have been excluded from full participation in Jewish communal life."


National Museum of American Jewish History
Independence Mall East
55 North 5th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106-2197
Tel: 215.923.3811 Fax: 215.923.0763
www.nmajh.org