Meet Our New Grantees
Education
In 1976, a small museum of American Jewish history was founded on the site of the old Mikveh Israel Congregation in Philadelphia. Even then, the organizers had grand hopes of becoming the central repository of the American Jewish experience. Now, over thirty years later, those hopes are about to become a reality as the Museum breaks ground at a new location directly across the street from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Those sites along with the surrounding historic district welcome millions of visitors each year.
Current plans include more than 100,000 square feet of exhibition and event space, tracing the lives of American Jews from 1654 to the present day and telling an American story of liberty, equality, and freedom through the particular lens of the Jewish community. The current collection includes over 20,000 artifacts including silver, books, drawings, photographs, postcards, and much more. To create a spectacular physical space, the Museum has hired the same architects who did the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the Natural History in New York and the exhibition designer of the Newseum in Washington, DC. The Museum is scheduled to open in the fall of 2010.
