Shana Tova, Happy Jewish New Year!

A note from Sol Davis, JMM Executive Director

The Jewish month of Elul is a time of reflection. If we choose to accept Elul’s invitation to be contemplative, it can help us strengthen the muscle of reflective thinking in preparation for even deeper reflection during the High Holidays. Among the many things I have taken time to reflect upon as we approach the High Holidays, I have considered our communal commitment to preserving and remembering our people’s past.

In 1998, the Jewish Museum of Maryland was established as a successor organization to the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland (JHSM) which was established in 1960. Consider this sequence of occurrences that followed the establishment of the JHSM:

• In 1961, the JHSM undertook an effort to acquire, renovate, and care for the Lloyd Street Synagogue (LSS), and in 1962 the JHSM purchased the LSS from the elders of Shomrei Mishmeres Hakodesh
• In 1963, JHSM began to document Jewish cemeteries, microfilm important papers, and record oral histories of “important personages of today’s scene.”
• By the end of 1964 the restoration of LSS’s main floor was complete, the building was formally dedicated as a historic site, and it was opened for public visitation.

I learned all of this by reading Generations, the magazine that the JMM published between 1978 – 2012 (yet another example of our commitment to preserving our communal past!).

This year, the JMM is undertaking the deep work of modernizing and strengthening the Museum’s infrastructure through capital renovations ensuring that we are well positioned to continue our work of preserving and presenting the Jewish history of Maryland in ways that enrich the present and help us dream big about our communal future. The Museum building is currently closed to the public and our staff is hard at work developing original exhibitions, planning for the integration of new technologies, updating our internal practices, and coordinating the many ways we can use new tools to share the rich material culture and content that JMM holds and produces.

On behalf of the JMM, I want to thank you, our communities of supporters and partners, for your shared commitment to caring for our communal history and for dreaming expansively with us about the abundant possibilities within Jewish life and community in the future. Wishing you all a healthy and joyous 5784!

Sol Davis, Ph.D.
Executive Director