“The museum is set up in such a way that it’s not just for Jews,” says Laura Barnard, marketing and communications director for JMM’s parent organization, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. “Some of the issues the museum focuses on, like immigration, have come back into play. And the consequence of intolerance is a lesson everyone still needs to learn.”

Displayed along JMM’s winding walk-through, around the bend from the Holocaust section, are 1930s advertisements for Wisconsin hotels and resorts. They include the once familiar phrase, “Gentiles Only.” Intolerance has infected every society, and Jews, for centuries the world’s most widely dispersed minority, often faced discrimination and persecution. The lesson of their story can be applied to any group assaulted by bigotry.

Defining Judaism
Greeting visitors in the museum’s atrium is Marc Chagall’s mural Jeremiah, a biblical allegory of the Jewish people. A documentary by Milwaukee filmmaker Douglas Love, running on a screen in the foyer, serves as an introduction to Judaism and the meaning of being Jewish.

“What’s the big question people have coming into a Jewish museum?” asks Kathie Bernstein, JMM’s executive director. “It’s, ‘Who are they?’ Some people think all Jews look alike and think alike. They’ll find out in our film that this isn’t true.”

Brilliant Space
The Jews and the world, the local and the global—it’s a lot to squeeze into 5,000 square feet. But JMM manages to accommodate 150 years of Jewish Milwaukee against a backdrop of thousands of years into its compact setting without feeling cramped.

Museum President Marianne Lubar credits the Maryland firm of Gallagher & Associates with reconfiguring the space into a splendid journey from the past through the present. “We interviewed many designers and went to many museums to see what we liked and disliked,” she explains. “Gallagher’s use of space is brilliant. They took a flat, small area and angled it off with great use of light and cubbyholes.It’s not jangling. Some small museums have so much going on! We wanted a calmer atmosphere without a lot of flashing lights and noise.”

Among JMM’s innovations are a data kiosk, where viewers can access a huge body of photographs and other archival material not on the walls, and a booth where visitors can record a video response to the ideas on exhibit. Of course, the bones of JMM are formed from the same clay as all museums. There are recreated displays, including the sort of peddler’s cart common on Milwaukee streets before World War II, and authentic artifacts such as Tables of the Law from the old Beth Israel Synagogue and Sabbath candles and other household religious items. There are tributes to famous Milwaukee Jews, including a poster of Naked Gun honoring the Zucker brothers; photographs of Spic and Span, Goldmann’s and other Jewish businesses; and wallboards with maps and timelines.

Among the most poignant exhibits is a package mailed to a Milwaukee family from their relatives, a married couple trapped in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. The contents are on display, including a lovely set of colored fashion drawings by the wife, a clothing designer. The letter asked for help in gaining a visa to allow her to work in the United States. The paperwork was never approved. The couple died during the Holocaust.

Lubar stresses the role of historian Jane Avner as well as numerous focus groups and committees in conceiving the museum and choosing its contents. “Creating a community is what we’re about,” Bernstein adds, speaking not only of the genesis of JMM, but of the Jewish experience throughout history.

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