Spotlight on Holocaust Education!

It's hard to believe that we have already wrapped up hosting our fifth annual Holocaust education workshop! What started as a fairly small program has grown into a three day event in early August that included trips to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center. The 34 participants represented a fascinating diversity of backgrounds and specialties. Here's the breakdown:

• Anne Arundel public schools: 1
• Baltimore City public schools: 6
• Baltimore County public schools: 2
• Carroll County public schools: 6
• Cecil County public schools: 2
• Frederick County public schools: 1
• Howard County public schools: 3
• Jewish schools: 3
• Archdiocese of Baltimore: 4
• Graduate students: 3
• JMM volunteers: 2
• Maryland State Department of Education administrator: 1

Here are a couple of photos from Monday at the JMM:


Dr. Nicole Dombrowski of Towson University shares their online digitized archive of materials relating to the Nuremberg Trials.



Storyteller Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff introduces students from Goucher College who have focused on learning and sharing personal testimonies.


Teachers learned about additional resources like this trunk of materials that is available to rent from the Baltimore Jewish Council.

Additionally, participants listened to survivors, watched documentaries, learned best practices from award-winning teachers, received introductions to humanitarian law and Israeli history, explored social action in contemporary situations, heard about education practices in Russia, visited exhibitions, and so much more!

Some of the overwhelmingly positive feedback that we received:

• Thanks so much for the GREAT food, excellent planning, and phenomenal resources!! I am very appreciative of this fabulous institute!!
• Thanks for everything!! Excellent job! Great info!!
• Great job, excellent resources & diversity in topics/speakers
• Wonderful workshop! One of the best I’ve ever taken.
• This was a great experience!
• This was an incredible conference! Thank you for bringing in so many terrific speakers. We learned a lot in a very short amount of time. I was impressed with the breadth of knowledge spanned by the speakers!
• Wonderful seminar – I can’t wait to take it again!

If you are interested in participating next year, please email education coordinator, Lauren Silberman, at lsilberman@jewishmuseummd.org to be notified.

A tale from the vault...

"It was 4:30pm. I was the only person left in the ed dept. and decided to use the restroom. I walked out of the office and upon seeing that the gate by the bathrooms was already pulled down and locked, I proceeded to walk through the library and around. That worked fine - until I tried to go back the way I had come and found that the double doors were locked. I was now stuck. After banging on the double doors for a moment I tried the “Exit” door and found it unlocked so I stuck a hanger in the doorjamb and exited the building. That placed me in the alley between the museum and B’nai Israel, where I quickly found that both those gates leading to the street were also locked! I hopped the wall (more appropriately, the window alcove in the brick wall) and knew that the front gate was hopeless, so I proceeded to the front of the museum where I rang the doorbell about 3 times before Esther came and found me. In addition to being bewildered as to how I came to be in a totally locked area, Esther still had to find the keys before she could get even the first set of doors open to let me back in. When she finally got to me the first thing she said (through her laughter) was, “Would you please tell me how you got out here?” to which I reiterated the story and we both had a good ol’ laugh."

Phew! Glad she made it out of that one! Go go Action Intern!

Ready for our close ups!

Intern Rebecca reports that "at the JCC farmer's market on Sunday, there was a woman filling out a survey and then she looked up at me and said, "Aren't you the girl from the Jewish Times?" I felt like a star!"

We here at the museum already think ALL of our interns are stars! And hey, you never know when you'll see one of their shining faces around town.

Check out our interns: they're famous!

Check out last week's edition of the Jewish Times for the rest of the story!

Once Upon a Time Photos: 7.31.09

The Baltimore Jewish Times publishes unidentified photographs from the collection of Jewish Museum of Maryland each week. Click here to see the most recent photo on their website. If you can identify anyone in these photos and more information about them, contact Jobi Zink, Senior Collections Manager and Registrar at 410.732.6400 x226 or jzink@jewishmuseummd.org.


Date(s) run in Baltimore Jewish Times: 7/31/09


PastPerfect Accession #: 1992.108.018


Status: Identified! Ida Sharagrodski, secretary of Camp Louise.


Special thanks to Dr. Fram

Sometimes you find the weirdest things in archives. We found a dirty sponge in one of the boxes at Baltimore Hebrew University (that did not make it into the collection). I worked at a place that had a pair of boxers mixed in with one collection – not sure if they’d been cleaned before donation.

After the sponge and the boxers, my latest discovery isn’t that weird. Actually I’ve encountered it before, but usually with some warning. When you’re going through someone’s papers you don’t generally expect to find an envelope full of someone’s hair. Norman’s curls to be exact, cut sometime after 1915.

More inventory discoveries to follow....

Brews and Schmooze: A Smashing Success!

The JMM had well over 110 people attend Brews and Schmooze yesterday. Here are a couple photos from all the fun! Thank you to Kosher Bite and Cold Stone Creamery of Canton for the delicious food.



A full house of people inside...



and outside enjoying the nice weather...


and music by John & Chay!


Back inside, visitors received a tour from artist JT Waldman of his work in the exhibition, Drawing on Tradition: The Book of Esther.


Or they could just enjoy it on their own.

Thanks to everyone who spent an evening with us :)

Once Upon a Time Photos: 7.24.09

The Baltimore Jewish Times publishes unidentified photographs from the collection of Jewish Museum of Maryland each week. Click here to see the most recent photo on their website. If you can identify anyone in these photos and more information about them, contact Jobi Zink, Senior Collections Manager and Registrar at 410.732.6400 x226 or jzink@jewishmuseummd.org.


Date(s) run in Baltimore Jewish Times: 7/24/09


PastPerfect Accession #: 1992.108.017


Status: Partially Identified. Past Presidents of the P.T.A. Front Row (L-R) 1. 2. Thomas Lipnick 3. Back Row (L-R) 1. 2. 3. Benjamin Bloom

Walking Tour of East Baltimore

Last week, we provided a driving tour of Jewish Baltimore. This week, we're adding a walking tour of the neighborhood surrounding the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Planning on coming to Brews and Schmooze on Wednesday, August 5th from 6 - 8pm? Maybe consider coming a little early to take this self-guided tour!

About the Tour:
Through this self-guided walking tour, The Jewish Museum of Maryland encourages you to take a fresh look at the old East Baltimore Jewish immigrant neighborhood known today as Historic Jonestown.

At first glance you might think there is little to see beyond the Museum’s two historic synagogues and the Lombard Street delicatessens. We invite you to discover what has survived and learn about what hasn’t by navigating the neighborhood with these directions.

This tour was created in connection with the Festival of Maps Program through Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and the Mayor & City Council of Baltimore City. It has been adapted by Ilene Dackman-Alon and Deborah R. Weiner from Dean Krimmel’s Jewish East Baltimore: A Walking Tour for the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Copyright The Jewish Museum of Maryland, 2008.

This walking tour uses Google Maps. Please click on the map or link below to learn about all of the different stops along the way.


View Jewish East Baltimore in a larger map