American Jewish Historical Society

Today Bruce and I visited the American Jewish Historical Society, a mostly-free museum an avenue block off Union Square. This is a museum created as a partnership between 5 organizations, and each one contributes exhibits to the museum. I'd never heard of it before but stumbled on it while looking for free things to do in New York City. Their website is at www.ajhs.org

There was an excellent exhibit on the historic synagogues of Turkey, with beautiful photos of synagogues, some of them centuries old. It was fascinating to read about the Ottoman Empire in which Jews and Muslims coexisted peacefully and Jews were invited to help shape the Ottoman Empire. Too bad that mutual respect can't seem to exist today, although it does in Turkey (unless the fundamentalist Muslims are able to take over there too).

Besides the beautiful photos, the researchers kept a travel diary that was fascinating to read. One excerpt described a rabbi who travels 22 hours each way every weekend in order to bring Shabbas services to a town that has only 4 or 5 remaining Jews. Now that's dedication!

Another exhibit was on Jewish Chaplains at War: Unsung Heros of the "Greatest Generation," 1941-1945. This described the extraordinary efforts put forth by the Jewish chaplains during World War II, how they comforted the wounded, buried the dead, and sustained the faith of all troops without regard to race, ethnicity or religion. They also made efforts to help the Holocaust survivors rebuild their lives. They worked closely with Christian chaplains for the first time and brought the spirit of ecumenicism back to civilian life at the war's end.

Several chaplains died while on duty. One was on a ship that was torpedoed. He and 3 other chaplains of other faiths gave their life preservers to the escaping sailors, and then held hands and prayed while the ship sank. Their sacrifice was honored on a postage stamp.

The Yeshiva University Museum had an exhibit on Dreyfus but we preferred to stay in the free part of the museum, and, that exhibit room didn't look all that big. (Bruce wandered into it by mistake while looking for me). I was in another side room looking at an exhibit built around the mesivta, the separation between men and women in the Orthodox synagogues. I'd always resented that separation so it was interesting to see how the artists interpreted it, with cutouts of women, the mesivta on one side and a depiction of the woman's character on the other.

There was a photo exhibit of Jewish writers. Many of them I've read, but many others I have not. Now if I see their names I will remember and perhaps read their books.

This was a delightful and serendipitous find. If you're visiting NYC check it out!