Volunteer Spotlight on: Robyn Hughes

Robyn Hughes has been volunteering at the JMM since 2005.  From the time she was a Jewish Studies major at the University of Maryland, she dreamt about working at the JMM.  She has volunteered in many capacities.  She began as a docent and continues as a weekly (sometimes twice weekly!) afternoon docent who leads tours of the synagogues.  In the intervening years, she worked as a Summer Education Intern and a Fall Research Fellow in 2006, during which time she organized a wine and cheese reception for Art Beyond Sight, established a Salon program, and collected oral history interviews from historically significant Maryland Jews.  She continues to represent the JMM on Capitol Hill at the annual Museum Advocacy Day, plus acts as the Educator for museum programs for guests who read Braille and ensures that the Museum supports the standards for Common Core Braille literacy.

She volunteers at the JMM because she loves it.  She particularly appreciates the geographic and professional diversity of all of the guests, staff and fellow volunteers, and finds it fascinating getting to know everyone.

Three interesting facts about Robyn that make her even more endearing…  She lived in Israel for a total of 3 years, beginning as a tourist then returning to spend time at Hebrew University and as a graduate student also.  She is an expert on German Jewish Coffeehouse Intellectuals—she studies the social and political writings of Karl Kraus and Stefan Zweig.   She is taking flying lessons.  She learned how to pilot a Cessna 172 aircraft.  Prior to flying, she enjoyed learning to rock climb.  Plus, she continues to enjoy traveling, having done academic research in London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna.

A blog post by Volunteer Coordinator Ilene Cohen. The first Monday(ish) of every month she will be highlighting one of our fantastic JMM volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering with the JMM, drop her an email at icohen@jewishmuseummd.org or call 410-732-6402 x217! You can also get more information about volunteering at the Museum here.