The Jewish Museum is closed today.
The Jewish Museum is closed today.
1109 5th Ave at 92nd St
New York, NY 10128
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Plan your visit to the Jewish Museum and discover the intersection of art and Jewish culture Learn More
Located on New York City’s Museum Mile, the Jewish Museum is a museum at the intersection of art and Jewish culture for people of all backgrounds. Founded in 1904, the Museum was the first institution of its kind in the United States and one of the oldest Jewish museums in the world.
The Museum maintains a unique collection of nearly 30,000 works of art, ceremonial objects, and media reflecting the global Jewish experience over more than 4,000 years. Our distinguished exhibition history reveals a deep and rich exploration of Jewish culture and identity, and includes some of the most seminal exhibitions of the 20th and 21st centuries. Our dynamic education programs – from talks and lectures, to performances, to hands-on art making and more – serve a wide range of audiences, including families, teens, students, educators, and visitors with disabilities.
As an art museum representing the diversity of Jewish culture and identity, the Jewish Museum believes in free expression and an open society. We embrace multiple viewpoints regardless of race, gender, national origin, or religion, and we oppose discrimination in all its forms.
Our exhibitions and public programs provide platforms for cross-cultural dialogue, fostering empathy, mutual understanding, and respect. We champion the powerful roles art and artists can play in our communities, both inside and outside the Museum’s walls.
The Jewish Museum, one of the world’s preeminent institutions devoted to exploring art and Jewish culture, from ancient to contemporary, was founded in 1904 in the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, where it was housed for more than four decades. The Jewish Museum was the first institution of its kind in the United States and one of the oldest existing Jewish museums in the world.
Judge Mayer Sulzberger1 donated a collection of ceremonial art to the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary with the suggestion that a Jewish museum be formed. Subsequent gifts and purchases have helped to form the Museum’s distinguished collection, one of the largest and most important of its kind in the world.
In 1944, Frieda Schiff Warburg2, widow of the prominent businessman and philanthropist Felix Warburg3, who had been a Seminary trustee, donated the family mansion4 at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street to the Seminary for use as a museum. Located along New York City's Museum Mile, and designed in the French Gothic chateau-style by architect Charles P.H. Gilbert, the original building was completed in 1908, and has been the home of the Museum since 1947.
A sculpture court was installed alongside the Mansion in 1959, and the Albert A. List Building was added in 1963 to provide additional exhibition and program space. In 1990, a major expansion and renovation project was undertaken; upon completion in June 1993, the expansion doubled the Museum’s gallery space, created new space for educational programs, provided significant improvements in public amenities, and added a two-floor collection exhibition called Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey, which told the unfolding story of Jewish culture and identity through works of art.
Today, the Jewish Museum presents a diverse schedule of internationally acclaimed exhibitions while maintaining a collection of nearly 30,000 objects reflecting global Jewish identity – painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, installations, media, archaeological artifacts, antiquities, and ceremonial objects. Nearly 600 objects are on view now in the exhibition Scenes from the Collection.
The Jewish Museum’s programming includes major exhibitions of an interdisciplinary nature, often employing a combination of art and artifacts interpreted through the lens of social history. The Dreyfus Affair: Art, Truth and Justice (1987)5, Gardens and Ghettos: The Art of Jewish Life in Italy (1989), Bridges and Boundaries: African Americans and American Jews (1992), From Court Jews to the Rothschilds: Art, Patronage and Power 1600 – 1800 (1996), Berlin Metropolis: Jews and the New Culture 1890 – 1918 (1999), The Power of Conversation: Jewish Women and Their Salons (2005), The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936 – 1951 (2011); and Helena Rubinstein: Beauty is Power (2013) are examples of this type of exhibition.
The Museum is also known for monograph shows of significant artists such as Camille Pissarro (1995); Marc Chagall (2013, 2001, and 1996); Chaim Soutine (1998); George Segal (1998); Adolph Gottlieb (2002); Amedeo Modigliani (2004); Eva Hesse (2006); Alex Katz (2006); Louise Nevelson (2007); Man Ray (2009); Maira Kalman (2011); Edouard Vuillard (2012); Jack Goldstein (2013); Art Spiegelman (2013); Mel Bochner (2014), and Florine Stettheimer (2017).
Works of modern and contemporary artists are regularly presented in group exhibitions such as Too Jewish? Challenging Traditional Identities (1996), Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940 – 1976 (2008), Other Primary Structures (2014); Take Me (I’m Yours) (2016); and The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin (2017).
The Museum regularly presents a diverse and wide-ranging array of daytime and evening programs for individuals, groups, families, and schools.
For more than a century, the Jewish Museum has illuminated art and Jewish culture from biblical times to the present, offering intellectually engaging and educational exhibitions and programs for people of all ages and backgrounds. Together with its unparalleled collection, the Museum provides an ever-changing and dynamic range of opportunities for exploring multiple facets of the global Jewish experience, and for educating current and future generations.
For proposal information click here.
Robert A. Pruzan, Chairman
Stephen M. Scherr, President
Jeanette Lerman, Vice Chair
Betty Levin, Vice Chair
Benjamin Winter, Vice Chair
Jonathan Crystal, Vice President
David L. Resnick, Treasurer
Harriet Schleifer, Secretary
Audrey Wilf, Assistant Treasurer
Jane Wilf, Assistant Secretary
Claudia Gould, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director, ex officio
Shari Aronson
Gail A. Binderman
Wendy Fisher
Nomi P. Ghez
Alice Gottesman
David Israel
Virginia Kamsky
Carol Schapiro Kekst
Jonathan Krane
Malcolm Levine
Andrew E. Lewin
Sander Levy
Gustave K. Lipman
Phyllis Mack
Aaron Malinsky
Mahnaz Moinian
Joshua Nash*
Steve Novenstein
Michael Rubinoff
David Shapiro
John Shapiro
Amy Rose Silverman
James Stern
Margaret Streicker
Steven Tulip
Barry J. Alperin**
E. Robert Goodkind*
Robert J. Hurst*
Dr. Henry Kaufman
Francine Klagsbrun
Ellen Liman
Susan Lytle Lipton*
Leni May*
Morris W. Offit*
Amy Rubenstein
H. Axel Schupf*
Stuart Silver
John L. Vogelstein**
Mildred Weissman
Shuly Rubin Schwartz
Clare Peeters
* Chairman Emeritus
** President Emeritus
The Museum and its staff are unable to authenticate or perform appraisals of works of art or artifacts for the public. We suggest that you consult a reputable art dealer, appraiser, or auction house. You may also wish to contact the Appraisers Association of America to get more information on certain types of appraisals.
A request for donations of admission passes may be submitted by email to Visitor Experience at info@thejm.org. Be sure to include the name of the organization and the date of your fundraiser.
The Jewish Museum’s collection has benefitted from the generosity of numerous donors over the years. The Museum collects Judaica (Jewish ceremonial objects), work by Jewish artists, and art that relates to Jewish subjects, themes, or experiences. (The Museum does not collect historical documents, artifacts from the Holocaust, or Jewish books or manuscripts).
If you are interested in offering an object or artwork to the Jewish Museum, and you believe the work is appropriate for our institution, please send the following information to submissions@thejm.org and include “Donation Inquiry” in the subject line:
Please note that only email submissions will be reviewed, and that email attachments must not exceed 20 MB total. Potential donations cannot be brought to the Museum or left in our custody, and we cannot review objects or artworks in person. Due to the volume of offers we receive, we are not be able to respond directly to every submission. If your proposal is of interest, a member of the curatorial department will contact you.
If you would like to introduce the Museum to your work, or the work of an artist you represent, please send the following materials to submissions@thejm.org and include “Artist Submission” in the subject line:
Please note that only email submissions will be reviewed, and that email attachments must not exceed 20 MB total. Original artworks cannot be brought to the Museum or left in our custody, and we cannot review materials or portfolios in person. The Jewish Museum values the work of artists from around the globe, but the volume of submissions often outnumbers staff capacity to review and respond to each individually. For that reason, the Museum treats the review process as informational only. Critiques or comments are not offered on submissions. A member of the curatorial department will get back to artists or their representatives if the work is of interest.
Please download and complete the Film Entry Form, then send to filmfestival@thejm.org.
Deadline: August 8, 2019 for the January 2020 New York Jewish Film Festival.
For further information, email filmfestival@thejm.org.
If you are a curator interested in proposing an exhibition for the Jewish Museum, please send the following materials to submissions@thejm.org and include “Exhibition Proposal” in the subject line:
Please note that only email submissions will be reviewed, and that email attachments must not exceed 20 MB total. Due to the volume of proposals we receive, we are not able to respond directly to every submission. If your proposal is of interest, a member of the curatorial department will contact you.
Russ & Daughters at the Jewish Museum, legendary purveyors of appetizing cuisine, can accommodate 60 people for event rentals of the full kosher restaurant, and also features a beautiful private dining room that seats 20.
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The Scheuer Auditorium is beautifully decorated using architectural details and stained glass windows from the original Warburg Mansion.
This elegant space can accommodate 160 guests for a seated dinner, 230 with auditorium-style seating and 250 for a cocktail reception.
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The Skirball Lobby features period columns and a magnificent ceiling.
This inviting space is perfect for small receptions of 75 guests.
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