New York, NY, March 18, 2025—This spring, the Jewish Museum presents the first U.S. retrospective in nearly half a century dedicated to social realist artist and activist Ben Shahn (1898-1969). Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity examines the prolific and progressive artist’s commitment to chronicling and confronting crucial issues of his era, spanning from the Great Depression to the Vietnam War, as well as his exploration of spirituality and Jewish texts. Featuring 175 artworks and objects from the 1930s to the 1960s, including paintings, mural studies, prints, photographs, commercial designs, and ephemera, the exhibition highlights the enduring relevance of Shahn’s art across media, while revealing new insights into the complexity of his aesthetic and his decisive shift from documentary to allegorical and poetic styles in pursuit of a visual language that would resonate widely.

New York, NY, March 4, 2025—This spring, the Jewish Museum presents a major exhibition examining how the heroic story of Queen Esther served as a popular source of inspiration for Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1609) and his contemporaries in 17th-century Netherlands. Featuring over 120 works, including paintings, prints, and drawings by Rembrandt, Aert de Gelder, and Jan Steen, among others, as well as Jewish ceremonial art and decorative objects, The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt illustrates how the story of the biblical queen influenced Dutch art and culture and represented an enduring symbol of triumph over adversity at a time of vibrant cultural exchange.
 

New York, NY, January 28, 2025 – The Jewish Museum has announced its schedule of exhibitions through the Fall of 2025, including a major exhibition of artist Ben Shahn's work; the Book of Esther as it was depicted in the age of Rembrandt; and a new collection installation debuting with the reimagined, renovated, and expanded public spaces on the Museum's third and fourth floors. 

New York, NY (December 12, 2024) – This January, the Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center collaborate once again for the annual New York Jewish Film Festival (NYJFF), spotlighting the finest documentary, narrative, and short films from around the world that explore the Jewish experience. Among the oldest and most influential Jewish film festivals worldwide, NYJFF will feature in-person screenings for its 34th edition at Film at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, from January 15 through January 29, 2025.

New York, NY, December 2, 2024 – The Jewish Museum announced today that it is acquiring (M)otherland, a video installation by Ruth Patir originally created for the Israel Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Comprising a series of videos featuring digitally animated Iron Age fertility goddesses, the work brings together ancient archaeology and advanced imaging technologies to reflect on the complex intersection of gender, motherhood, and the tensions surrounding fertility and reproductive rights in today’s world. The work will premiere at the Tel Aviv Museum in March 2025 and will go on view at the Jewish Museum following the reinstallation of its collection galleries, currently in progress as part of a broader reinvention of the Museum’s third and fourth floors slated for completion in the fall of 2025.

New York, NY, November 5, 2024— Draw Them In, Paint Them Out: Trenton Doyle Hancock Confronts Philip Guston examines Philip Guston’s seminal influence on Trenton Doyle Hancock and both artists’ shared commitment to investigating the legacy of white supremacism in the United States. On view November 8, 2024, through March 30, 2025, the exhibition presents the painter Philip Guston (American, b. Canada 1913–1980), the child of Jewish immigrants from Odessa (present-day Ukraine), and Trenton Doyle Hancock (American, b. 1974), a leading Black contemporary artist based in Houston, Texas, in dialogue for the first time. The exhibition explores resonant connections between their work and the role that artists play in the pursuit of social justice.

New York, NY, October 21, 2024— The Tel Dan Stele, a 9th century BCE stone monument fragment containing the earliest mention of the royal House of David outside of the Hebrew Bible, will be on view at the Jewish Museum. On loan from The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, the stone slab's inscription lends archaeological evidence to the existence of the Biblical King David as a historical figure, in parallel with the narrative of the Bible. The Stele will be displayed for a limited time from December 5, 2024, through January 5, 2025, as part of Engaging with History: Works from the Collection, an installation of objects from the Museum’s holdings that illustrates the vibrancy and complexity of Jewish culture across the global diaspora over more than 4,000 years.

New York, NY, September 12, 2024—The Jewish Museum presents Engaging with History: Works from the Collection, a selection of rarely exhibited objects from the Museum’s holdings of over 30,000 works, including new acquisitions from artists such as William Kentridge, Joel Mesler, Michal Rovner, and Carrie Mae Weems, and works by Richard Avedon, Vardi Kahana, and Michal Ronnen Safdie on view for the first time. Open from September 13, 2024, through January 5, 2025, the exhibition features more than 30 paintings, sculpture, photography, ceremonial art, and new media that speak to the Museum’s commitment to collecting and exhibiting works by artists from diverse cultures worldwide that resonate with the global Jewish experience. The exhibition also previews the new narrative that will accompany the complete reinstallation of the Museum’s collections that will open in the fall of 2025, following the transforming renewal of the Museum’s third and fourth Floors, which is currently underway.  

New York, NY, August 14, 2024—The Jewish Museum will present Ilit Azoulay: Mere Things, the first U.S. solo museum exhibition dedicated to the work of interdisciplinary artist Ilit Azoulay (Israeli, b. 1972; lives and works in Berlin), from September 13, 2024, through January 5, 2025. The exhibition features selections of Azoulay’s work from 2010 to the present, showcasing large scale digital photocollages of archival objects that explore how images and objects transmit knowledge, shape memory, and support or undermine historical narratives.  The presentation includes a new work that responds to the collections and context of the Jewish Museum, as well as selections from the series Queendom (2022), first presented as part of Azoulay’s solo exhibition for the Israeli Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022.

New York, NY, July 29, 2024 – The Jewish Museum today announced that its Board of Trustees has elected philanthropist Shari Aronson as Chair of the Board, and that Sander M. Levy and David Shapiro will serve as Board Co-Presidents. Ms. Aronson has been a member of the Museum’s Board of Trustees since 2011 and was instrumental in the creation of its Young Patrons program, which engages young professionals interested in art and Jewish culture. Mr. Levy, Managing Member of Lakeside Capital Holdings, is the former Board Vice President and has been a Museum Trustee since 2020; and Mr. Shapiro, a partner in the Corporate Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, is the former Board Secretary and a Museum Trustee since 2020. Additionally, the Museum appointed two new trustees, private investor Marc Abramowitz and philanthropist and publisher Cassie Arison.

New York, NY, May 21, 2024— The Jewish Museum announced today that it is embarking on a major reinvention of its third and fourth floors, transforming half of the Museum’s public space. Opening Fall 2025, the project includes the renewal of the Museum’s education facilities on the fourth floor as a center for teaching and learning in gallery settings and their dynamic connection to the third floor, which will feature an innovative presentation of works from the collection that tell stories about the vibrancy and complexity of Jewish culture over more than 4,000 years. This project reflects a new vision that places teaching and learning at the center of the Museum’s activities and will build capacity for the Museum’s far-ranging exhibitions and public programs, presenting the work of artists and thinkers from diverse cultures worldwide to stimulate dialogue and promote understanding.

New York, NY, May 9, 2024—The Jewish Museum presents Overflow, Afterglow: New Work in Chromatic Figuration, on view from May 24 through September 15, 2024. New works in painting, sculpture, and installation by Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Sasha Gordon, Sara Issakharian, Chella Man, Ilana Savdie, Austin Martin White, and Rosha Yaghmai exploree how supernatural color and uncanny luminescence challenge the boundaries of traditional figuration. The exhibition highlights the figure’s malleability and continual metamorphosis, expressing the lived experiences of a multiethnic, multiracial, and otherwise multifaceted group of makers.