In the News
D.C. exhibit celebrates the Jewish deli — and, yes, it’s worth the schlep — The Washington Post
‘No pickles? No deli’: archetypal American ‘secular Jewish space’ gains due regard — The Guardian
Members
Join us on 8/18 for a farewell celebration (free) to the exhibition, featuring deli trivia, shop savings, gallery talks, & more!
About the Exhibition
“I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish Deli explores how American Jews imported traditions, adapted culture, and built community through the experience of food. In addition to showing how the Jewish deli forged an entirely new, quintessentially American cuisine by combining Central and Eastern European dishes with ingredients abundantly available in the United States, the exhibition traces the larger arc of the Jewish experience in the US during the twentieth century.
On view will be store signs, menus, advertisements, fixtures, historical footage, film and television clips, and artifacts that illuminate how delicatessens evolved from specialty stores catering to immigrant populations into the beloved national institutions they are today.
For the Washington, DC, presentation, the Capital Jewish Museum incorporates new research and works from its collection to highlight the local Jewish community’s contributions to deli culture. Additions to the galleries include photographs, menus, and ephemera from local Jewish-owned delicatessens.
The exhibition is organized into the following sections:
Food of Immigration | The Food | Mid-Century Heyday | No Substitutions | Who’s at the Table? | Survivor Communities | Pop Culture on Rye | Shifting Landscapes | DC & the Deli
