September 21, 2008
Enews September 2008
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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MUSEUM TAKES NEXT STEPS ON FLOOR
The Museum has the floor, so to speak. Construction of the first floor of the new Museum being built on Independence Mall is 75 percent completed and expected to be finished by mid-October. Work on the first floor followed completion of the basement floor in early September. Among the components to be found on the new Museum's first floor will be the Only in America® gallery.
The gallery will feature interactive stations that focus on individual American Jews--some famous and some who should be more famous than they are--are-exploring and celebrating their contributions in America and to America. Also in September, a tower crane (pictured below) was erected at the site. The tower crane will lift and assemble the structural steel that will form the Museum's framework. The framework, or skeleton, is scheduled to be completed in February.
The Museum is in the midst of a $150 million Capital Campaign for construction of the 100,000-square-foot, five-story building. Nearly $112 million has been raised for the Campaign. The new Museum is scheduled to be completed in fall 2010. For information on how to support the Museum, contact Irv Hurwitz, the Museum's director of institutional advancement at 215.923.3811 x 133 or by e-mail. 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.
EXHIBITION ASKS FOR INPUT
Museum Wants To Know Visitor Knowledge
To experience recreated environments that transport you to a certain time or a certain place. To see original documents and personal objects. To share family stories and memories. These are among the choices visitors to the Museum's current exhibition are given when asked the question, "What three topics are most important for an exhibition about the experiences of Jews in the U.S.?"
This question, along with others asking about the Museum's major themes of freedom, immigration, and religious tolerance, appear on interactive touch screens in Shaping Space, Making Meaning, the Museum's current changing exhibition.
The exhibition design team is using the responses to these questions to give them a sense of the trends that can be discerned in contemporary American Jewry. In addition, the touch screens have a short quiz to help the Museum learn about its audience's knowledge of American Jewish history.
Shaping Space, Making Meaning also 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.
MUSEUM SHOP OFFERS A DISCOUNT FOR THE HIGH HOLY DAYS
Just in time for the High Holy Days, the Museum Shop carries unique and hand-crafted items to grace your holiday table, including this pomegranate collection (pictured). It is said the pomegranate has 613 seeds, equal to the number of commandments in the Torah. The pewter pomegranates adorning the items in this collection remind us of the Torah's commandments, ensuring a righteous start to the New Year.
These pomegranate candlesticks, kiddush cup, and challah plate are made by San Francisco-based artist Patrick Meyer. Meyer received his training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris in Paris, France. He started as a jewelry designer in 1985 but soon began creating metal household items. Meyer's pieces are sold nationwide and are a beautiful synthesis of form and function.
The Kiddush cup sells for $60, the challah tray for $80, and the candlesticks for $165. The entire set can be purchased by E-Newsletter subscribers at a special discounted rate of $275.Along with Meyer's pomegranate collection, the Museum Shop sells other Judaica perfect for the High Holiday season. This includes electric yahrzheit candles and a vast array of hand-made apple and honey dishes.
Customers who mention the E-Newsletter will receive a 10 percent discount for the holidays. Visit the Museum Shop to browse the collection or look at the items online at www.judaicashop.net. For more information email 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.
EXPERIENCE THE PRYOR EXPERIENCE
Museum Co-Sponsors Performance
Rain Pryor is performing her jazz-inspired cabaret The Pryor Experience in two October shows at the Painted Bride Art Center co-sponsored by the Museum.
The Pryor Experience will feature her signature comedic interludes. Her stunning voice is also showcased in this musical performance with arrangements from Grammy-nominated Keith Killgo. Growing up in Beverly Hills as the daughter of a classic Jewish mother and the African American humorist Richard Pryor, Rain Pryor brings a sharp wit to fundamental questions of race, faith, and identity.
Rain previously performed at the Painted Bride in 2005 with her one-woman show Fried Chicken & Latkes, which was also sponsored by the Museum. The Pryor Experience is being performed Saturday, Oct. 4, 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 5, 3 p.m. The cost is $35, and $17.50 for members of the Painted Bride.
To obtain tickets please visit the Painted Bride's website.
MUSEUM JOINS PHILLY INSTITUTIONS WITH SPECIAL SUBSCRIBER OFFERS
The Museum is joining with the Rosenbach Museum & Library and the Arden Theatre Company to offer E-Newsletter subscribers free and discounted tickets. The Rosenbach is offering 10 pairs of tickets to their current exhibition, There's a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak, while the Arden is offering a $5 discount on adult tickets for their production of Candide.
The Rosenbach's exhibition is a retrospective of the work of author and artist Maurice Sendak. Through a total of more than 300 original watercolors, pen-and-ink sketches, doodles, manuscripts, books, and dummy books from the 1950s, it focuses on Sendak's personality as a storyteller. The exhibition discusses difficult and mysterious themes and memories in his work. Sendak's prolific imagination is explored through the characters, influences, and settings of his books, as well as his quest to illustrate what he calls "the Other Story," the hidden meanings of a text that haunt and enrich his illustrations.
There's A Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak will be on display at the Rosenbach Museum & Library through May 3, 2009, with new works on view every four months. For more information on the exhibition visit the Rosenbach's website.
To receive a pair of tickets, be one of the first five subscribers to email fdawson@rosenbach.org with the subject line "NMAJH Promotion." All respondents will automatically be added to the Rosenbach's e-news mailing list.
The Arden's production of Candide, featuring Leonard Bernstein's legendary score, is a bold and brand new version of Voltaire's wicked satire. This funny musical cuts to the core and will shock audiences.
To take advantage of the special NMAJH E-Newsletter subscriber offer of $5 off adult tickets, call the Arden Theatre Company's box office at 215.922.1122 and mention this story. The offer is not valid on previously purchased tickets and not in conjunction with another offer or discount. The offer is not valid for Saturday night performances.
The production will run through October 19. Tickets are available on the Arden website.
___________________________________
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
___________________________________
MUSEUM TAKES NEXT STEPS ON FLOOR
The Museum has the floor, so to speak. Construction of the first floor of the new Museum being built on Independence Mall is 75 percent completed and expected to be finished by mid-October. Work on the first floor followed completion of the basement floor in early September. Among the components to be found on the new Museum's first floor will be the Only in America® gallery.
The gallery will feature interactive stations that focus on individual American Jews--some famous and some who should be more famous than they are--are-exploring and celebrating their contributions in America and to America. Also in September, a tower crane (pictured below) was erected at the site. The tower crane will lift and assemble the structural steel that will form the Museum's framework. The framework, or skeleton, is scheduled to be completed in February.
The Museum is in the midst of a $150 million Capital Campaign for construction of the 100,000-square-foot, five-story building. Nearly $112 million has been raised for the Campaign. The new Museum is scheduled to be completed in fall 2010. For information on how to support the Museum, contact Irv Hurwitz, the Museum's director of institutional advancement at 215.923.3811 x 133 or by e-mail. 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.
EXHIBITION ASKS FOR INPUT
Museum Wants To Know Visitor Knowledge
To experience recreated environments that transport you to a certain time or a certain place. To see original documents and personal objects. To share family stories and memories. These are among the choices visitors to the Museum's current exhibition are given when asked the question, "What three topics are most important for an exhibition about the experiences of Jews in the U.S.?"This question, along with others asking about the Museum's major themes of freedom, immigration, and religious tolerance, appear on interactive touch screens in Shaping Space, Making Meaning, the Museum's current changing exhibition.
The exhibition design team is using the responses to these questions to give them a sense of the trends that can be discerned in contemporary American Jewry. In addition, the touch screens have a short quiz to help the Museum learn about its audience's knowledge of American Jewish history.
Shaping Space, Making Meaning also 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.
MUSEUM SHOP OFFERS A DISCOUNT FOR THE HIGH HOLY DAYS
Just in time for the High Holy Days, the Museum Shop carries unique and hand-crafted items to grace your holiday table, including this pomegranate collection (pictured). It is said the pomegranate has 613 seeds, equal to the number of commandments in the Torah. The pewter pomegranates adorning the items in this collection remind us of the Torah's commandments, ensuring a righteous start to the New Year.These pomegranate candlesticks, kiddush cup, and challah plate are made by San Francisco-based artist Patrick Meyer. Meyer received his training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris in Paris, France. He started as a jewelry designer in 1985 but soon began creating metal household items. Meyer's pieces are sold nationwide and are a beautiful synthesis of form and function.
The Kiddush cup sells for $60, the challah tray for $80, and the candlesticks for $165. The entire set can be purchased by E-Newsletter subscribers at a special discounted rate of $275.Along with Meyer's pomegranate collection, the Museum Shop sells other Judaica perfect for the High Holiday season. This includes electric yahrzheit candles and a vast array of hand-made apple and honey dishes.Customers who mention the E-Newsletter will receive a 10 percent discount for the holidays. Visit the Museum Shop to browse the collection or look at the items online at www.judaicashop.net. For more information email 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.
EXPERIENCE THE PRYOR EXPERIENCE
Museum Co-Sponsors Performance
Rain Pryor is performing her jazz-inspired cabaret The Pryor Experience in two October shows at the Painted Bride Art Center co-sponsored by the Museum.
The Pryor Experience will feature her signature comedic interludes. Her stunning voice is also showcased in this musical performance with arrangements from Grammy-nominated Keith Killgo. Growing up in Beverly Hills as the daughter of a classic Jewish mother and the African American humorist Richard Pryor, Rain Pryor brings a sharp wit to fundamental questions of race, faith, and identity.
Rain previously performed at the Painted Bride in 2005 with her one-woman show Fried Chicken & Latkes, which was also sponsored by the Museum. The Pryor Experience is being performed Saturday, Oct. 4, 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 5, 3 p.m. The cost is $35, and $17.50 for members of the Painted Bride.
To obtain tickets please visit the Painted Bride's website.
MUSEUM JOINS PHILLY INSTITUTIONS WITH SPECIAL SUBSCRIBER OFFERS
The Museum is joining with the Rosenbach Museum & Library and the Arden Theatre Company to offer E-Newsletter subscribers free and discounted tickets. The Rosenbach is offering 10 pairs of tickets to their current exhibition, There's a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak, while the Arden is offering a $5 discount on adult tickets for their production of Candide.The Rosenbach's exhibition is a retrospective of the work of author and artist Maurice Sendak. Through a total of more than 300 original watercolors, pen-and-ink sketches, doodles, manuscripts, books, and dummy books from the 1950s, it focuses on Sendak's personality as a storyteller. The exhibition discusses difficult and mysterious themes and memories in his work. Sendak's prolific imagination is explored through the characters, influences, and settings of his books, as well as his quest to illustrate what he calls "the Other Story," the hidden meanings of a text that haunt and enrich his illustrations.
There's A Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak will be on display at the Rosenbach Museum & Library through May 3, 2009, with new works on view every four months. For more information on the exhibition visit the Rosenbach's website.
To receive a pair of tickets, be one of the first five subscribers to email fdawson@rosenbach.org with the subject line "NMAJH Promotion." All respondents will automatically be added to the Rosenbach's e-news mailing list.
The Arden's production of Candide, featuring Leonard Bernstein's legendary score, is a bold and brand new version of Voltaire's wicked satire. This funny musical cuts to the core and will shock audiences.To take advantage of the special NMAJH E-Newsletter subscriber offer of $5 off adult tickets, call the Arden Theatre Company's box office at 215.922.1122 and mention this story. The offer is not valid on previously purchased tickets and not in conjunction with another offer or discount. The offer is not valid for Saturday night performances.
The production will run through October 19. Tickets are available on the Arden website.
___________________________________
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
posted by nmajh @ 9/21/2008 
