Purim Balls Help Address American Jewish Choices And Challenges Classical music begins to play as ballroom dancers dressed in period costume from the nineteenth century appear on screen. Images of real American Jews of the time - ladies dressed in flowing gowns and ornate hats, men in their formal attire of tails, top hats, walking canes and fresh boutonnieres - are woven in.
So opens a short film recently shot by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker David Grubin recreating a Purim Ball, grand philanthropic affairs that American Jews held in the late nineteenth century to support a wide variety of charities.
The film is one of 18 films being created for the new Museum's core exhibition by Grubin. The Purim Ball gallery will be an immersive experience including Grubin's film, artifacts, music, costumes and other displays that will evoke the environment of the balls.
The first Purim Ball was held in March 1862 by a group of wealthy Jewish New Yorkers. Soon the lavish affairs became annual philanthropic events in cities around the country attended by Jews and Christians alike. The balls demonstrated Jews' social standing while celebrating the holiday and its injunction to offer gifts to the poor with a particularly American flair.
But while some post-bellum Jews generally believed themselves to have achieved at least a modicum of economic success, and many felt they had developed a balance between their ambitions for integration and their desire to maintain Jewish identities, American Jews faced numerous challenges during the second half of the nineteenth century. These included their minority status, continuing antisemitism, and the opportunity for Jews to freely choose to no longer identify with or practice Judaism.
Through the Purim gallery, the Museum will examine the choices 
and challenges facing American Jews, a recurring theme throughout the exhibition.
In addition to the ongoing creation of the core exhibition, a milestone of the building itself is near, as the installation of the exterior terracotta walls is scheduled to be completed
this week.
The new Museum is scheduled to open in November of 2010.
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.
For information on ways to participate in the Museum's Capital Campaign, contact Irv Hurwitz, the Museum's director of institutional advancement, at 215.923.3811 x133 or via email at ihurwitz@nmajh.org.
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Filmmaker David Grubin also created the film used to introduce the Museum to potential visitors and donors. The film, which can be seen on the Museum's website, is also posted on the YouTube channel of the Smithsonian Affiliations, where it has been viewed by more than 165,000 people. The Museum is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.
The video has also become a viral sensation, with friends and fans of the Museum distributing it online to people in their address books.
"Impressive, well done and informative video. Congratulations on this achievement and those to follow!" wrote Bernard Wax, director emeritus of the American Jewish Historical Society after viewing the video online. His comment was typical of the notes the Museum continues to receive from viewers of the video.
A director, writer, and cinematographer, David Grubin has produced more than 100 films, ranging from history to art, from poetry to science. He has won every award in the field of documentary television, including two Alfred I. Dupont awards, three George Foster Peabody prizes, four Writer's Guild prizes, and 10 Emmys.
Founding Member's Support of Museum Attributed to Her Mother
From Generation to Generation
Rona Kramer fondly remembers sitting at the dinner table as a child listening to her mother, Betty Mae, tell the family what she had learned that day about Jewish history. Betty Mae Kramer is a historian of Jewish 
history who passed on to her children a great respect for Judaism and the past of her people.
Rona Kramer's grandparents also played a role in her sense of Jewish identity, teaching her that understanding Jewish history and culture and knowing who she was and where she came from was incredibly important.
As a mother, Kramer has continued the tradition of "from generation to generation," by passing her dedication to Jewish history on to her children. "We wanted to continue the traditions that were passed through my grandparents to my parents and to me," Kramer said.
Inspired by her mother and to set an example for her children, Kramer recently became a Museum Founding Member, joining more than 3,600 people from across the country who have recently joined the Founding Membership Campaign of the Museum.
"I want my children to feel a part of tzedakah and the history of their people so that they will continue the tradition. The appreciation my family has for tzedakah and Jewish history is a tribute to my mother."
Founding Members support what will be an iconic new national institution on Independence Mall as well as a leading national education and cultural center. The Museum will explore the promise and challenge of liberty through the lens of the American Jewish experience, and its programs will include unique exhibitions, lecture series and films, as well as online initiatives, distance learning and outreach programs for students of all ages across the country.
Founding Memberships may be purchased with a gift as little as $54.
Visit the Museum's website for information on becoming a Founding Member and about the membership benefits and premiums provided at each level of donation, or call the Development Office at 215.923.3811 x 104.
Founding Members will be invited to participate in the Museum's opening celebrations and to visit the NMAJH for free whenever they choose, throughout the membership term. Founding Members also have the opportunity to make their donations in honor of or in memory of others, and their names will be permanently listed in the Museum along with other Jewish Americans who have played important roles in shaping the history of this country.
The new Museum is scheduled to open in November 2010.
For information on ways to participate in the Museum's Capital Campaign, contact Irv Hurwitz, the Museum's director of institutional advancement, at 215.923.3811 x 133 or via email at ihurwitz@nmajh.org.
Program to Feature Panel Discussion on Refugee and Immigrant Children The National Museum of American Jewish History is a sponsor of the upcoming free panel discussion, "A Long Way From Home: Refugee and Immigrant Children Without Parents," being held on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010 at the Montgomery McCracken law firm in Philadelphia.
The multi-generational and inter-ethnic panel will include Dr. Erwin Tepper, who was an unaccompanied child sent to the U.S. in 1930 under the auspices of Brith Sholom to escape the Holocaust; Juan Guerra, who left Cuba in the early 1960s on the Peter Pan airlift; Ayeun Ajok, a "lost boy" from Sudan; a recent unaccompanied youth from Latin America; and Lesly Flores, a recent unaccompanied minor from Honduras.
The program is being held to raise awareness about unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children. For generations, the United States has helped children who have been separated from their parents by violence and persecution and come here seeking a better life. The panelists will discuss the impact of their experiences fleeing their home countries and arriving in a new land alone.
The National Museum of American Jewish History, will feature in its forthcoming core exhibition the stories of children who were saved from the Nazis through the efforts of a coalition of private American Jewish and gentile organizations. Their efforts, and the children who benefited, are remembered today by the organization One Thousand Children.
Attorneys, child and immigration advocates, social service providers and the general public are invited to attend the free program. Participants are welcome to bring their own lunches.
The primary sponsor of the program is HIAS and Council Migration Service of Philadelphia, an organization that provides social and legal services to refugees and immigrants and has a special focus on providing legal assistance to unaccompanied minors. Other program co-sponsors include organizations that have worked with unaccompanied minors: Lutheran Children and Family Services of Eastern Pennsylvania, the Support Center for Child Advocates, Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Philadelphia, and Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law.
The Feb. 17 program will be held from noon to 1 p.m. at the Montgomery McCracken law firm in the Justice Roberts Conference Center, 123 S. Broad St., Philadelphia.
To RSVP for the event, please contact Ms. Loy Omphommasack at HIAS and Council Migration Service by e-mail at
loy@hiaspa.org or (215) 832-0905.
Museum Sponsors Final Film in Documentary Festival Series
"Documentary and Dialogue" Series Concludes
The Museum continues to support the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival by sponsoring movies that explore the American Jewish experience. The final film sponsored by the Museum, "Sketches of Frank Gehry," concludes the festival's "Documentaries and Dialogue" series.
In "Sketches of Frank Gehry," late filmmaker Sydney Pollack interviews renowned architect Frank Gehry (born Ephraim Goldberg) as well as colleagues and friends like Philip Johnson, Dennis Hopper, Thomas Krens, Herbert Muschamp, Edward Ruscha, and Julian Schnabel. These "sketches" afford a rare opportunity to learn what it takes to create masterpieces like the Bilbao, Guggenheim and the Disney Concert Hall in L.A.
Frank Gehry is currently leading the 10-year plan to expand the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The screening will take place Monday, Feb. 15, 7:00 p.m. The night's guest speaker will be Alan Greenberger, executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Committee.
The film will be shown at the Gershman Y, 401 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia.
Currently in its 29th season, The Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival (PJFF) is the second oldest Jewish Film Festival in the United States. It 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.
To purchase tickets to either showing please visit the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival website.
Ketubot on Sale at Museum Shop
15 Percent Off Jewish Marriage Contracts
From now until Feb. 28, Museum Shop visitors will receive 15 percent off ketubot when shopping both in person and at the online store. Ketubot such as the one pictured by artist Jonathan Kremer are designed as both an official marriage contract and as decorative art for the home.
Fanciful flowers cradle the text of this colorful Kremer ketubah with the expression of love from the "Song of Songs:" "Ani l'dodi v'dodi li," "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." The English verse is woven among the flowers at the upper right of the border.
The Museum Shop carries Judaica from a variety of artists in an array of styles. Visit the Museum Shop to browse the large assortment of items in all price ranges.
In addition to carrying more than 50 ketubot in the shop visitors can also find hundreds online at www.judaicashop.net. For more information e-mail Eva Schlanger or Elaine Silverman, or call the Museum Shop at 215.923.0262.
The Museum Shop is closed Mondays and Tuesdays in January and February, but will be open during Museum hours on all other days: Wednesdays-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.
Exhibition Asks Visitors For Feedback on How Stories Will Be Told
When Abigaill Levy married Jacob Franks, one of New York City's most affluent merchants, they, like like many Colonial Jews, integrated into local society by dressing and behaving like their neighbors. However, they continued to retain a large measure of their cultural identity. When their daughter, Phila, married a prominent Gentile, the union was rejected. Abigail refused to have any further contact with her child.
The story of Abigaill Levy Franks is one of six in the Museum's changing exhibition, "Shaping Space, Making Meaning," which asks visitors how they prefer to hear stories told.
The interactive exhibit, "Can We Talk" offers two versions of each story such as Abigaill's, one more personable, and one with straight facts.
The answers to questions by visitors to the exhibition give the NMAJH's exhibition design team a sense of opinions among visitors, and indicate 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" features design sketches, computer-generated images, video and text that offer an insider's look at the process of developing a landmark exhibition about the 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 And JDub Records Join for E-Newsletter Subscriber Offer
The Museum is teaming up with
JDub Records to provide five E-Newsletter subscribers with a free copy of
"Girls In Trouble", a self titled CD by the up-and-coming-band.
At first listen, "Girls in Trouble" projects an upbeat, care free indie-folk feel which carries through each track from beginning to end. What's less apparent is the underlying concept: telling the stories of obscure Biblical women through a song cycle.The album is artfully arranged with strings, upright bass, and electric guitar.
"Girls in Trouble" is the songwriting debut of multi-instrumentalist Alicia Jo Rabins, who performs all vocals, guitar and string sections for the album. Alicia marries her classical training and folk-punk sensitivi
ty to her penchant for Jewish literature, mysticism and history.
JDub is a non-profit dedicated to innovative Jewish content, community, and cross-cultural dialogue. Its mission is to create community among young Jews, their friends, and significant others by promoting proud, authentic Jewish voices in popular culture. It also strives to offer young adults opportunities to connect with their Judaism in the secular world in which they live.
The first five subscribers to e-mail
elliot@jdubrecords.org will receive a copy of the CD.
To order a copy of the CD e-mail
Eva Schlanger or
Elaine Silverman at the Museum Shop, or call 215.923.0262.
Only winners will be notified.
