If you’ve checked your email lately, and if you’ve ever given money to a political party or a candidate, you’ve surely noticed a lot of requests for volunteers and increasingly desperate calls for money. I was on vacation last week, not checking email—something I highly recommend, incidentally—and came back to approximately 40,003 emails from the Read More
To mark the 170th anniversary of the founding of Washington’s first Jewish congregation, Washington Hebrew Congregation, their archivist wrote about the highlights of the early years in their April 2022 Journal. We are pleased to share the article here with appreciation for their generous contribution. “It is said the Hebrews, or Jews, are going to establish Read More
Author: Esther Safran Foer Ukraine, where my family lived for generations and where most of them were murdered, is in its fight for survival. These past weeks I have been glued to our TVs watching history’s sad drama playout in real time. For me this is personal. My mother and father were born here, so Read More
Internships provide important opportunities for students to translate their educational insights into real-world projects. Opportunities to participate in the development of a new museum are that much more valuable. We are pleased to be hosting two interns in our Education Department. In addition to traditional assignments, assisting with ongoing public programs, and being trained as Read More
Being from Houston, Texas, I didn’t grow up with much concern about history. After all, when a building was about 30 years old, it’d be torn down for a “better” one. It was 1995 before Houston had its first historic preservation ordinance, so while my lack of curiosity about history is not defensible, it is Read More
Every year on the Jewish holiday of Tu B’shvat (the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, which fell this year on January 17), observers celebrate what is affectionately known as the new year of the trees, or “Jewish Earth Day.” In the 1950s and 1960s and beyond, many American synagogues and organizations also Read More
In 1967, DC’s Jewish community rallied together to relocate and save the historic 1876 Adas Israel synagogue. Over the next few years, a local fundraising and publicity campaign was undertaken to restore the first purpose-built synagogue in our nation’s capital. As part of the campaign, a scale model of the building was created to show Read More
Sukkah City x DC‘s Community Day, on Sunday, September 19, featured more than ten community partners, two artists, seven participating architects/architecture firms, and more than 500 visitors. Following are descriptions of the activities presented by our partners who helped make the day a resounding success. Thank you to everyone for their interest, support, and participation. Read More
This summer (2021), we lost a special advisor to the museum, Avi West, a generous and respected educator in the greater Washington Jewish community. I learned many lessons about Judaism and Jewish values from Avi in the few years I knew him, but one stands out. We were discussing how to tell the stories of Read More
Sukkah City x DC features imaginative and expressive structures that highlight key social justice themes of housing insecurity, displacement, and the changing urban landscape, and asks visitors to confront the impermanence of our lives and to experience what it would mean to live without a solid roof overhead. As part of Sukkah City x DC’s Read More