Museum Matters: November 2021
Welcome to Museum Matters, your monthly update on what’s happening at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. And in November there is a lot happening.
In case you missed it, the Museum is open to in-person visitors again. Click here for more information about our reopening, including hours and COVID-19 safety protocols. And if you stop in before December 2 you can catch a lobby exhibit of some of our favorite recent acquisitions.
We have an in-person event planned for this coming Sunday, November 7 at 3PM. It’s a community art-making and singing workshop with artist Daniel Toretsky, who is building an installation in our courtyard called We Would Come Home But You’ve Locked The Door. Daniel is inviting community members to help create art for the installation and to help sing a niggun, a traditional Jewish melody, which will be recorded as part of the project. It’s the site-specific installation part of our upcoming exhibit A Fence Around The Torah: Safety And Unsafety In Jewish Life, which is opening on December 5, You can read more about that exhibit here.
Speaking of A Fence Around The Torah, we have two more installments in our series In Conversation: Safety and Unsafety in Jewish Life, where participants reflect on safety and exclusion within their own communities and institutions. We are holding conversations on Thursday, November 11 with Tikvah Womack and another on November 23 with Jennifer Folayan.
JMM recently kicked off an exciting new series of virtual events called Expressions Of Us). It is a series of presentations, screenings, workshops and more that celebrate expressions of identity and explore how people use art, literature, film, and crafts to express themselves. You can read about and register for the upcoming events here.
We’ve also got some great programming coming up that is perfect for families with children between the ages of 6 and 12. November 14 will be the first installment of our series Shalom World: Judaism Around The Globe, which teaches kids and families about Jewish communities worldwide. The first event is about Latin America, and will feature a performance by musician Mister G and a latke cooking demonstration from Dr. Analucía Lopezrevoredo of Jewtina y Co. Upcoming events will focus on Jewish communities in Tunisia and Ethiopia.
The winter holidays are coming up, and the JMM is participating in the Strathmore Museum Shop Holiday Market from November 11 to 13. Strathmore is a great chance to buy unique gifts, both from the JMM and from other museums, and to support local cultural institutions.
Next week marks 83 years since Kristallnacht. We are co-sponsoring a commemoration of Kristallnacht with the Baltimore Jewish Council, which will feature Dr. Joshua Shanes, Associate Director of Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston, discussing the history of pogroms in Europe and the US’s own experience of pogroms, most famously the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. To register click here.
Finally, our JMM On The (Virtual) Road series is continuing through the middle of December. The purpose of these events is to meet and engage with members of the Jewish community throughout the state. These events are also chances to help guide the JMM to better represent the full spectrum of Jewish life around Maryland and to build our collection. For more information click here.
We hope to see you, online or in person, soon!
The 2021 Monna and Otto Weinmann Lecture, Defying Expectations: Women Resistance Fighters During the Holocaust, will take place on Monday, November 8, virtually and for free, from 7 to 8 pm ET. You may register and read more about the program here.
The USHMM’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide is hosting a discussion on its forthcoming report “To Make Us Slowly Disappear”: The Chinese Government’s Assault on the Uyghurs. The discussion date is Tuesday, November 9, at 12 PM ET, hosted on the Simon-Skjodt Center’s Facebook page.
The Illinois Holocaust Museum And Education Center presents Virtual Lunch And Learn: Spiritual Resistance During The Holocaust. It is a virtual docent-led experience of their newest thematic tour by veteran Museum guides Miki Jona Schreiber and Laurie Hasten exploring the ways Jewish people maintained their humanity and dignity by using their spirituality during the Holocaust.
The Maltz Museum, the Ohio Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education, and Facing History and Ourselves present a free educator workshop led by the California-based Genocide Education Project called Teaching The Armenian Genocide. Participants will learn the general contours of the history of the Armenian Genocide as well as how to use objects in the classroom for a powerful pedagogical experience. That’s on Tuesday, November 16 at 6PM ET. To register click here.
Paid publication opportunity for educators: Apply to be a Towson University Holocaust Education Symposium Curriculum Author.