Throughout their lives together, Gustav and Mira Berger collected Jewish ceremonial objects, focusing on silver, glass, copper tin, parchment, and fine art. The collection offers an impressive visual history of mainly European makers of ceremonial Judaica.
The Bergers bequeathed their ceremonial Judaica collection to the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in 1993. Mira Berger also established a museum fund to support the conservation of artifacts, in memory of Gustav and their son, Raphael, who died in 2007. Contributions to this fund ensure that the OJMCHE collection receives a high standard of care and conservation. The museum received the complete collection, totaling 119 objects, after Mira’s death in February 2020.
Gustav Berger was born in Vienna in 1920, where his father and grandfather dealt in art and antiques. Mira came from Vilna, Poland. Her parents taught in private Jewish elementary schools. After meeting in Italy following World War II, the Bergers moved to New York in 1954.
Gustav began his illustrious career as a painting conservator, opening his own studio in 1967. He was an inventive conservator and developed BEVA, an adhesive for painting conservators still widely used today. Gustav died in March 2006 after a lengthy illness. In the many tributes that followed, he was hailed as the man who had “arguably the most influence on the techniques and materials used in the present-day conservation of easel paintings.”
Mira was an active writer throughout her life. She began her career with articles about Hebrew education and culture in Europe between the World Wars and in the Vilna Ghetto. Mira’s eloquent memoir, We Are at War: Memories of a Holocaust Survivor was published in 2008.