A Visit to the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beechwood, Ohio

This past month, I took a bus excursion with a group of women to visit the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, Ohio which is just outside of Cleveland. The Museum was featuring an exhibit called Women & Spirit which is a project of The Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The exhibit tells the story of all of the Catholic religious communities of women who came to the United States in every century going back to the 1700's. Even before the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, women religious came from Europe to the New Orleans area. They were then made American citizens at the time of the purchase.

Rare artifacts, poignant photographs, compelling video and first-person accounts tell the remarkable stories of these pioneering women who established schools, hospitals and other enduring institutions and continue to work for peace and social justice. We learned that the sisters played a vital role in shaping American life from the earliest days of the republic throughout its history.

A tour guide explained to us why an exhibit of Catholic sisters was being shown at a Jewish Heritage museum. The museum often features immigrants to the United States, and because the nuns were immigrants, they chose to display the collection.

The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage opened on October 11, 2005. It brings to the Cleveland area an ongoing and diverse schedule of exhibits as well as a variety of educational, family-oriented programs including films, lectures, activities and performances. It is also a living testament to the courage, conviction and achievements of Cleveland's Jewish communityh. At our visit, we were also able to visit the Jewish exhibits which are on display.

The 24,000 square foot building is a beautiful structure made of Jerusalem limestone. It also includes the Temple-Tifereth Israel Gallery, an internationally recognized collection of Judaica and a special exhibition gallery featuring important exhibitions of national and international acclaim.

The Maltz Museum is the brain-child of Cleveland media mogul, Milton Maltz and his wife Tamar. They conceived the project after seeing a similar museum in Amsterdam and contributed well over half of the funds as well as the ideas for its creation. They also receive research support from the Western Reserve Historical Society. The Museum attracts students, adults and groups from the community and around the country. Devoted to diversity and tolerance, it adopted a simple mission: to build bridges of tolerance and understanding by sharing Jewish heritage through the lens of the American experience.

The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is located at 2929 Richmond Road, Beachwood, Ohio 44122. Their phone number is (216) 593-0575. Admission for adults is $12; seniors and students are charged $10; children from 5-11 pay $5, and children under 5 are free.Admission includes access to the entire museum, including special exhibitions.

The special exhibition on Catholic Sisters will next be shown at the Statue of Liberty National Monument/Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York City from September 24, 2010 to January 22, 2011.

Sources:

Personal experience

http://www.maltzmuseum.org

http://cleveland.about.com/od/attractionsandevents/p/maltz.htm#