The Jewish Museum is open 11 am - 8 pm. Please review visitor policies.
The Jewish Museum is open 11 am - 8 pm. Please review visitor policies.
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As the world continues to open up—with theaters buzzing and tourists returning to Museum Mile—we are grateful for your continued support of the Museum. At this unique moment in time, The Jewish Museum continues to offer engaging experiences both on-site and online, to meet our audiences wherever they are most comfortable.
Last week, we opened a momentous new exhibition, The Hare with Amber Eyes, based on the family memoir by Edmund de Waal. It brings me joy to invite you to visit this stunning immersive exhibition concept with design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. I first dreamed of turning this book into an exhibition ten years ago, and I’m sure you’ll agree that the result has been worth the wait.
We are also preparing for the annual New York Jewish Film Festival, taking place January 12 - 25, 2022. We will be presenting a hybrid festival with our partners at Film at Lincoln Center, featuring a combination of in-theater screenings at Walter Reade Theater, as well as online screenings. The member presale begins on December 14.
While our exhibition Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art continues through January 9, 2022, we will be hosting a range of meaningful virtual programs related to this important exhibition. A few upcoming highlights are a virtual lecture by Curator of Judaica, Abigail Rapoport, on December 2, telling the stories of objects that escaped World War II and ended up in the Jewish Museum collection; and Looting, Loss, and Recovery, a two-part virtual symposium coming up in the weeks ahead, which you can read more about in this newsletter.
You can also plan a visit to the Museum as part of your Hanukkah celebrations. Bring the family for an in-gallery Hanukkah Hunt activity on Sunday, December 5, to see the range of beautiful menorahs in the Museum’s collection. Or purchase candles and gift items from the Shop—these sales provide additional and critical support for the Museum.
Thank you for being with us this season, whether you choose to do so in person or at home.
Warmest regards,
Claudia Gould, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director
Explore the story of the Ephrussi family celebrated in the bestselling memoir of the same name by family descendant Edmund de Waal, through artworks by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Claude Monet, Gustave Moreau, Berthe Morisot, and Auguste Renoir; photographs, personal papers, and ephemera; as well as 168 Japanese netsuke that have been in the family since the 1880s.
This exhibition traces the fascinating timelines of individual objects as they passed through hands and sites before, during, and after World War II, bringing forward their myriad stories.
Featuring over 80 Hanukkah lamps drawn from the Jewish Museum's unparalleled collection of nearly 1,050 pieces, the lamps in this exhibition represent four continents and six centuries of artistic production, in a variety of materials from silver, to copper, to wood, and even silicone.
Netsuke are abundant and seminal objects for the exhibition The Hare with Amber Eyes. Netsuke (pronounced ˈnets-(ˌ)kā; from the Japanese characters meaning “root” and “attach”) are carved miniature sculptures most often formed in wood or ivory. The examples from the Ephrussi collection included throughout the exhibition were hidden from the Gestapo in Vienna by a maid compelled to assist the family during the looting of their home, according to Edmund de Waal’s captivating memoir.
Objets d'art, both diminutive and functional, netsuke were widely distributed as fashion accessories in Japan during the Edo period (17th-19th centuries). They were worn by samurai to secure portable pouches or boxes (sagemono/inro) to the sash (obi) of their kimonos. Netsuke functioned as status symbols and as conversation pieces.
As western style displaced traditional garments, the netsuke were recognized for their aesthetic value and became treasured works of art. With the opening of Japan to foreign trade in 1854, netsuke became admired by collectors in Western Europe. Witty and evocative, they offer an imaginative panoply of ornamentation; an infinite iconography drawn from fauna, flora, daily life, folklore, and mythology. Styled as monkeys, fruit, bundles of kindling, lovers, children, mendicant monks, and sleeping rats, their multiple threads, intertwined with the destiny of the Ephrussi, evoke themes of diaspora and continuity recurrent throughout The Hare with Amber Eyes.
The Ephrussi collection of netsuke was acquired by Charles Ephrussi, the art historian and collector, at the height of the late nineteenth-century wave of interest in Japan, after the opening of trade with the West in 1854. Together with his friend Louise Cahen d'Anvers, Charles collected Japanese objects from the dealer, Philippe Sichel, who had visited Yokohama and Osaka in 1874, and it was from this same Parisian dealer that Charles acquired the collection of netsuke as a lot (264 items), many of which are on view—including the hare for which the book and exhibition are named—in the Jewish Museum's current exhibition.
The Hare with Amber Eyes is on view at the Jewish Museum through May 15, 2022.
This winter, the Jewish Museum will present Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running, the first U.S. museum survey of the Lithuanian-born filmmaker, poet, critic, and institution-builder who helped shape the avant-garde in New York City and beyond.
The exhibition coincides with the centennial of Mekas’s birth, and surveys his seven-decade career, exploring the breadth and import of Mekas’s life, art, and legacy in the field of the moving image.
“Jonas Mekas is widely recognized as the preeminent maker and promoter of the New American Cinema—a radical genre of filmmaking that erupted in the 1960s, and whose makers examined upturned norms of sexuality, gender, and labor,” says exhibition guest curator, Kelly Taxter, Director of the Parrish Art Museum. “A lodestar in the history of the postwar American avant-garde, Mekas’s lifelong commitment to cultural and artistic movements outside the mainstream brought together and forged creative alliances amongst generations of artists working in diverse mediums.”
Born in Lithuania in 1922, Mekas emigrated to New York City in 1949 after spending five years in a Nazi work camp, and then Displaced Persons camps throughout Germany. A penniless, war-weary refugee, he nonetheless swiftly integrated into the city’s thriving counterculture, becoming a central organizer, and later, a prolific filmmaker, within the avant-garde community. Mekas was the author, founder, and co-founder of numerous artist-run cooperatives, distribution networks, and writings on film, co-founding the publication Film Culture in 1954; penning the first critical column on cinema in the Village Voice from 1958 - 71; and, in the 1960s, co-founding the Film-makers’ Co-op and Anthology Film Archives.
In 1968, the Film-makers’ Co-op presented the screening and conversation series Avant-Garde Tuesdays at the Jewish Museum. A selection of these screenings will be offered as programs during the exhibition’s run.
Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running will include 11 films and videos in an immersive environment. The works on view will span the entirety of Mekas’s career, beginning with his first major work Guns of the Trees (1962) and ending with his last work, Requiem (2019), which will be shown for the first time in an exhibition format. Embracing video, computer, and even cell-phone technology as the years went by, Mekas continued to film life itself until the very end.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Film at Lincoln Center will screen a selection of Mekas’s most essential film and video works, from February 17 - 20, 2022.
Broadening and enriching the collection with new acquisitions of art—including paintings, sculpture, photography, and Judaica—is at the core of the Jewish Museum’s mission. The Museum was founded with a gift of ceremonial art from Mayer Sulzberger to the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1904. The Jewish Museum’s collection now spans 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture through nearly 30,000 objects from around the world, from ancient artifacts to cutting-edge contemporary art.
New York artist Lawrence Weiner is widely regarded as a pioneer and central figure of the conceptual art movement. His work provides an opportunity to think critically about language; about how and why we create definitions, labels, and limitations with words; and helps us to imagine how we might use them to forge new alliances and generate new ideas. SHIPS AT SEA AS WE carries a potent social message speaking to the Jewish experience of exile and displacement, while connecting that specific history to multiple ongoing, global refugee crises. Weiner’s text suggests that we are all together, but also implies a question, perhaps even a call to action. Weiner has a long history with the Jewish Museum, where he has been included in five exhibitions since 1970. Most recently, his work ALL THE STARS IN THE SKY HAVE THE SAME FACE was presented across the Museum’s façade, transforming the building into a public artwork expounding Weiner’s message to the city in 2020 - 2021.
The site-specific installation “Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century” plus ninety-two more premiered in the Jewish Museum’s 2020 exhibition We Fight to Build a Free World: An Exhibition by Jonathan Horowitz. The work expands on Andy Warhol’s controversial series Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century. Horowitz’s work includes these ten portraits, as well as every other portrait of a Jewish subject that Warhol is known to have produced, from celebrated personalities such as the artist Man Ray, to lesser-known subjects whose portraits were commissioned. In many cases, the portraits are of people whose Jewish background is invisible or negligible as a part of their public persona. The realization of this work as a wallpaper gives concrete form to the idea that certain aspects of identity can recede into the background, evading notice, under the right circumstances.
This Esther scroll in case is remarkable in its exquisite artistry and noteworthy provenance. The intricately decorated case, made by a Hong Kong-based company, features popular Chinese motifs of bamboo and floral elements. The piece was owned, and most likely commissioned, by Ezra Ezekiel Ezra (Elias, ca. 1858-1920), a Jewish-Iraqi silk and spice merchant from Baghdad, who lived and worked in China. Incased within the object is a beautiful Esther scroll likely written by a member of the Ezra family. In the late nineteenth century, the Ezra family, along with notable Jewish families, expanded their businesses to China. Emblematic of this important moment, the Esther scroll in case demonstrates the cross-cultural dialogue within the movement of leading Jewish merchant families traveling between Calcutta and Hong Kong.
This splendid pair of Torah finials is an important representation of art and Jewish life in nineteenth-century Rangoon, Burma in what is today Yangon, Myanmar. The finials were dedicated to the Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue, which was established in 1854 and is the last surviving synagogue in the region. Though Myanmar was once home to a thriving Jewish population, today this Jewish community is one of the smallest Jewish communities in East Asia. In the mid-nineteenth century, Jews from Baghdad, Calcutta, Cochin, and parts of Iran began immigrating to Myanmar as part of a wave of merchants encouraged by the British colonial government to cultivate what was seen as an emerging market. The decorative elements adorning this pair of finials highlight the variety of stylistic influences of the numerous Jewish communities that immigrated to Myanmar at that time, revealing a diverse blend of cultures.
Over the past decade, Talia Chetrit has developed a conceptually rigorous, feminist body of work with a bold, autobiographical approach. She often utilizes her own body and those of close confidantes for her photographs, recalling the groundbreaking, performance-centered practices of historical feminist artists (Carolee Schneemann, Hannah Wilke, Francesca Woodman) who have employed portraiture as a means of reconceiving the self and womanhood. Reflecting on her long engagement with photography, Self-portrait (Downward) shows the artist in the act of capturing her own image at the apex of pregnancy. Her confrontational staging of her body and the controlled composition gives permission to look, prompting a dialogue around femininity and agency. Equally important is Chetrit’s emphasis on the camera as both a tool and subject of the scene. Chetrit’s work not only comments on how perceptions and representations of the female experience are evolving, but also reveals how she controls and makes those changes.
Screenings: January 12 - 25, 2022
Member Ticket Presale: December 14 - 16
Experience NYJFF at Walter Reade Theater or at home this winter. Starting December 14, visit NYJFF.org and use code MEMBER to access the presale and purchase discounted tickets. Read more in this issue, and view the full screening schedule on December 14 at NYJFF.org
This winter, members can enjoy an exclusive behind-the-scenes account of The Hare with Amber Eyes with Leon Levy Associate Curator, Shira Backer. Save the date—email invitation coming soon.
Curator's Choice: The Hare with Amber Eyes
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Lecture will be held via Zoom
Email Invitation Coming Soon
Jewish Museum members are always among the first to experience new exhibitions—before they open to the public. Keep an eye out for special invitations by email to private previews, for a memorable first look at the Museum’s groundbreaking shows.
Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running
Thursday, February 17
11 am – 6 pm
Timed Tickets Available Soon
This holiday season, treat friends and family to a thoughtful gift they’ll enjoy year-round—a Jewish Museum membership. They’ll be able to enjoy free admission, savings in the Shop, Members-Only Gallery Tours, previews of the upcoming exhibitions, and much more. Gift memberships also support the Museum’s mission -to make it possible for people of all backgrounds to connect with Jewish culture through thought-provoking exhibitions, dynamic performances, and engaging educational programs.
Members always receive 10% off on entire purchases online or in store, and can take advantage of members-only shopping events year-round. Keep an eye on your inbox for email notifications.
Celebrate Hanukkah with the Jewish Museum! From a special drop-in event at the Museum, to virtual concerts, guided at-home art activities, and more, Family Programs at the Jewish Museum offer a variety of fun and engaging holiday activities for families to enjoy together.
Sunday, December 5, 2021, 10:30 am - 3 pm EST
In-Person Drop-In Program
Ages 4 and up
Explore striking Hanukkah menorahs from around the world from the Jewish Museum's collecton. Embark on a playful hunt, sketch works on view, experiment with whimsical shapes, and engage with Jewish Museum Educators during a drop-in event in the Museum's galleries.
December 5 between 10:30 am and 2 pm only, timed ticket required. Free with Museum admission; admission free for members and children 18 and under.
TICKETS FOR HANUKKAH HUNT
YouTube Video Concert
Ages 3 and up
Jump to the roots-reggae-pop tunes of Josh & The Jamtones with sounds that bring the whole family to their feet. Hear reimagined classics such as “Oh Hanukkah,” songs with a modern twist including “Hanukkah Time,” and “Let Your Lite Shine Brite” to get into the spirit of the holiday.
WATCH JOSH & THE JAMTONES
Available on the Jewish Museum's YouTube Channel
Ages 3 and up
Get creative at home during the holiday with two exciting art activity videos. In Texture Explorations for Hanukkah, create colorful paper for a holiday collage inspired by the patterns on Hanukkah lamps by gathering rubbings of textures found at home. In A Superhero Comic, discover ways to draw a Hanukkah-themed comic by sketching poses, investigating the Museum’s collection, and helping an animated menorah learn about the Maccabees! In addition, explore our downloadable PDFs of Hanukkah Art Projects together.
Thursday, December 23, 2021, 4 pm EST
YouTube Video Concert Premiere
All ages
Enjoy the toe-tapping sounds of Nefesh Mountain, led by singer Doni Zasloff and her multi-instrumental husband Eric Lindberg. Dance to a vibrant blend of bluegrass, Celtic, and Appalachian tunes with a Jewish soul as the band performs original melodies from their notable family release Songs from the Mountain and award-winning album Beneath the Open Sky along with other favorites such as Woody Guthrie's "Hanukkah Dance." Free with RSVP; video premiere link provided with confirmation.
Visit the Jewish Museum's Hanukkah YouTube playlist to explore current and prior holiday videos.
View our calendar of upcoming Family Programs
The Jewish Museum is housed in the historic Warburg Mansion, designed in the French Gothic chateau style in 1908. The building served as the private home of Felix and Frieda Schiff Warburg for many years. The Warburgs were ardent philanthropists and proponents of the arts. In 1944, Frieda Warburg made an iconic and generous commitment to the arts when she donated the Mansion to become a museum of art and Jewish culture.
To honor the Warburg family tradition of giving, the Jewish Museum has created the Warburg Society—a special group of vital supporters who provide for the institution’s future by incorporating it into their legacy through a planned gift or bequest. Warburg Society members have a profound impact on the Jewish Museum’s compelling exhibitions and unparalleled educational programs.
This season, Warburg Society members are invited to attend an exclusive virtual tour via Zoom of The Hare with Amber Eyes, led by curator Stephen Brown.
Virtual Tour: The Hare With Amber Eyes
December 13, 2021
2 - 3 pm
Warburg Society members may RSVP by emailing Ella Parker, Development Associate, at eparker@thejm.org. Zoom link provided with RSVP.
For more information about the Warburg Society, or to plan a personal consultation, kindly contact Ronya Gordon, Senior Major Gifts Officer, at 212.423.3324 or via email at rgordon@thejm.org.
A holiday of lights, festivity, and fun, Hanukkah celebrations usually include a lively game of dreidel. Sometimes brightly colored, sometimes unconventionally shaped, all dreidels are spinning tops that bear four Hebrew letters: nun, gimel, hey, and shin. The rules of the game are simple: players put objects—often chocolate coins, or 'gelt,'—in a ‘pot.’ Depending upon which letter faces up when the dreidel stops spinning, the turn-taker receives all, none, or half of the gelt, or they must put a piece in. An abbreviation for nes gadol hayah sham, Hebrew for 'a great miracle happened there,’ the letters on the dreidel serve as a lighthearted reminder of the meaning of the holiday.
Leather Dreidel by JUDATLV, in Brown
Price: $50
Members: $45
Every purchase supports the Jewish Museum.
