See Part 1 for a brief history of the origins of the Museum and its first few iterations – first the National Shrine to the Jewish War Dead and then the Jewish War Veterans National Memorial, Inc.
In 1992, the National Memorial became known by name that we use today—the National Museum of American Jewish Military History. While it is certainly a mouthful, the new name better encompassed the mission of the Museum and its place as both a memorial to those who have served and a living monument to active servicemembers.
The rebranding ushered in a new era for the Museum. There was an increased focus on exhibitions, both in-house and traveling. In the spring of 1993, the NMAJMH opened an exhibit on American Jewish liberators called GIs Remember: Liberating the Concentration Camps. The exhibition coincided with the opening of US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the two museums worked together with other local Jewish organizations to create a Jewish Washington tourism program. The anniversary of the end of World War II helped to bolster interest in the exhibit, which received an unprecedented amount of publicity in both local and national press and was viewed by dozens of tour groups in the first few months after it opened. One of the focal points of the exhibition was oral histories recorded by liberators describing what they saw at the camps. These firsthand accounts are very impactful and are included in the Museum’s core exhibition today.
The centennial celebration for JWV in 1996 included festivities across the nation and in Washington, and the Museum participated by opening an exhibition on the history and accomplishments of the veterans organization. Making a Difference! A History of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America told of the creation of a Jewish veterans organization in response to anti-Semitic allegations by Mark Twain et al that Jews “were disinclined to stand by the flag as soldier” and JWV’s efforts through the years to continue to fight antisemitism and to support the veteran community. The centennial exhibition was on view for a year before being reconfigured and relocated to a different gallery to make room for a new exhibition.
An American, A Sailor, and a Jew: The Life and Career of Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy opened on July 4th, 1997, to a crowd of nearly 250 people. As the Museum does not have any original material relating to Levy in our collection, the exhibit was put together using resources from the Naval Historical Foundation, the US Naval Academy Museum, and the Library of Congress. The exhibit told the story of Levy’s life, his military service and the antisemitism he faced, his role in abolishing flogging as a punishment in the US Navy, and his purchase and restoration of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.
Around this time there was also discussion of a possible exhibition focusing on the military service of Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg. Goldberg’s sons visited the museum and liked what they saw, feeling that the NMAJMH would be the right venue to tell that part of their father’s story. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens with even the best laid plans, the exhibition did not come to fruition.
Though there was not a Goldberg exhibition, the Museum kept busy opening three new exhibits from 1999 to 2001. The first was the very popular Women in the Military: A Jewish Perspective, which opened in March of 1999. Captain Kimberly Elenberg described the things that she considers important in her life, including her service in the Armed Forces, her role as mother to her three children, her career as Head Nurse of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at Walter Reed Army Hospital, and her spiritual identity as a Jewish woman. She described how each of these aspects of her life influence each other and contribute to the pride she feels in each of her roles. CPT Elenberg also commented on the importance of passing heritage, traditions, and history down through the generations, especially for our Jewish culture. Many Jewish servicewomen (predominantly World War II veterans) shared their stories, photographs, and memorabilia for the exhibit. We hope to create an updated version of this exhibit featuring female vets from the post-WWII era and active-duty servicewomen soon.
The Museum worked with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to create Rescue and Renewal: GIs and Displaced Persons, which opened in the Fall of 1999. Guest curator Morton Horvitz stated that, “because the history of the displaced persons camps has been largely ignored, the [USHMM] is undertaking a major effort to educate the public about it.” The NMAJMH agreed to create an exhibit on the role of Jewish GIs in helping survivors to restart their lives, while other participating like the USHMM, the National Archives, and the Library of Congress created their own companion exhibits. The NMAJMH’s exhibit built on the stories told in GIs Remember and described the role of Jewish servicemembers in camp liberation and assisting survivors in DP camps in the postwar period.
The Hall of Heroes: American Jewish Recipients of the Medal of Honor opened in August 2001 with a ceremony featuring Colonel Jack Jacobs, the only living Jewish Medal of Honor awardee, and Colonel Barney Barnum, Medal of Honor recipient and then-President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. This exhibit is a testimonial to the bravest among us—those Jewish veterans who are recipients of America’s most prestigious medals for heroism in combat, the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, and Air Force Cross. The Hall of Heroes is a permanent exhibit, and it has been updated to include those Jewish servicemembers who have received the MOH since 2001.
While the exhibits mentioned here were all large (at least by NMAJMH standards), the Museum also opened several smaller exhibitions such as Gold Star Mothers and A Mother’s Grief. The NMAJMH also worked with the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, loaning over a hundred artifacts for use in their Ours to Fight For exhibit. In 2004 the Museum hosted a traveling exhibition of WWII aerial photographs – Reconnaissance and Recollection: The Photographs of Sy Weinstein. In 2008, PNC David Magidson sponsored Jewish War Veterans’ 1933 Protest March Against Nazi Germany, an exhibition highlighting JWV’s response to the rise of Nazism in Germany. This exhibit is still on view, right next to our newest exhibition – Jewish Americans in Military Service During Vietnam – which opened last spring.
The 350th anniversary of Jews in the United States in 2004 highlighted the need for a comprehensive exhibit on Jewish participation in the American military from the founding of our nation to the present. Efforts to make this exhibit a reality took nearly a decade, but in 2014 our core exhibit opened. The exhibit was designed to take advantage of technology and be infinitely updatable, and in the years since it opened, we have added stories and photos to the “Service Around the World” interactive and the Fallen Heroes touchscreen kiosk.
On top of all these exhibitions, the Museum has also hosted many public programs over the years. Lectures, book talks, and webinars are just some of the programs that the Museum has put together. Mike Rugel has worked to expand our event and program offerings, utilizing Zoom and YouTube to reach a wider audience.
While this little museum has accomplished much with limited resources, we are now looking very closely at what the future of the Museum could look like. We recently completed a feasibility study for a capital campaign, which you can learn more about at JWV’s convention in August. We welcome input on what our members would like to see at the Museum – not just in terms of exhibitions but also in areas like programs and community outreach.