EXHIBITION SCHEDULE 2009 - 2010

"MOSAIC: Jewish Life in Florida"  CORE EXHIBIT: Ongoing

This exhibit includes more than 500 photos and artifacts that depict the Jewish experience in Florida since 1763 to the present, reflecting a thematic presentation of immigration, inter-generational rituals, community development, discrimination, making a living, acculturation and identity. The exhibit depicts history through personal artifacts, oral histories, films, photography, pictorial timeline and contemporary art providing an opportunity for an engaging up close museum experience. The Museum is housed in two former synagogues that served the first congregation on Miami Beach. The primary building is a restored 1936 Art Deco building with a copper dome, marble bimah and 80 stained-glass windows. The second is the original 1929 shul. The skylighted Bessie’s Bistro connects the two buildings.

Dzialynski Pocket Watch

This pocket watch with Hebrew numerals, was owned by George Dzialynski (1857-1937), the first known Jewish boy born in Florida. The Dzialynski family still lives in Jacksonville.

JUDY CHICAGO: JEWISH IDENTITY

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009 – FEBRUARY 7, 2010    

Convention-shattering artist, author and social activist Judy Chicago is well known internationally as the creator of The Dinner Party, an epic, room-sized installation honoring women in history. This retrospective exhibition of work from throughout Judy Chicago’s career, includes topics about life and holidays, Holocaust, Israel and multiculturalism. The 50 artworks have been touring since early 2007, drawing large audiences, provoking discussion and engendering rich dialogue on what it means to be Jewish in the ways in which art, identity and culture inform and respond to one another.

48 JEWS: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE JEWISH

OCTOBER 20, 2009 – APRIL 18, 2010    

48 Jews examines the representation of Jews in the Diaspora. This is a series of 48 Warhol-esque portrait paintings by Abshalom Jac Lahav of famous Jews that celebrates and questions our notions of what it means to be Jewish. With varying degrees of abstraction, the portraits reveal mystery, emotion, shadow, form, essence and masked reality. Lahav gathers images from contemporary media sources and selects them for their iconic quality. The uniform size, composition, and subject of the paintings are a response to Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century (1980) or Gerhard Richter's 48 Portraits (1972).

Bob Dylan

Florida Jews in the Military

FEBRUARY 23, 2010 – SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

In tribute to all veterans, the Museum will mount an exhibit on the story of Floridian Jews who have served in the military. Throughout history, the supreme offering a human being could make for his nation was to put one’s life on the line for the ideals and freedom of that nation. The military offered a direct route to acculturation, especially for new immigrants. Floridian Jews have fought for every conflict from the Seminole Wars when the city of Ft. Myers was named for

Col. Abraham C. Myers through the Civil War when Morris Dzialynski of Jacksonville and many others served, to the World Wars, Korean, Viet Nam, Gulf and battles of the 21^st Century!

Col. Abraham C. Myers, c. 1835

LOX WITH BLACK BEANS & RICE:

PORTRAITS OF CUBAN JEWS IN FLORIDA

APRIL 13, 2010 – SEPTEMBER 25, 2010         

This photodocumentary exhibit on the contemporary Cuban Jewish community in South Florida includes 30 large-scale photographs and narratives reflecting Cuban Jews from all walks of life. The images are a look into the lives of a distinct group of people performing daily tasks, professions and rituals, providing an intimate view of a vibrant community that began more than four decades ago.