OJMCHE reopens with expanded galleries and opening exhibitions that include works by Rembrandt, Henk Pander, Salvador Dalí, and a new core exhibition, Human Rights After the Holocaust
High Res images are available here
Public Opening on June 11 includes a street-wide cultural festival
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE) announces its grand reopening on June 11 following a four-month closure. In 2020 OJMCHE launched its Campaign for the Future with the purchase of the former Charles Hartman Gallery on NW 8th Avenue. OJMCHE has again worked with Deca Architecture and Emerick Construction to link the new space to the existing museum floor plan. The renovation also expands the footprint of the museum’s other galleries and provides new museum lighting on the first floor. The Campaign for the Future successfully raised $2.2 million in grants and community support to cover capital expenses.
The centerpiece of the newly renovated museum is the powerful core exhibition, Human Rights After the Holocaust. The museum also reopens with two special exhibitions: But a Dream, Salvador Dalí, on the renewal of the Jewish people, and The Jews of Amsterdam, Rembrandt and Pander, centering on the observations of two master artists. The Ron Tonkin Museum Shop will once again offer a variety of gifts for all ages and Lefty’s Café will now be run by Jacob & Sons.
At OJMCHE, we teach visitors to recognize the roots of hatred, we instill values of inclusion and respect, and we demonstrate how to participate in a vibrant democracy. These values shape all of our offerings, which explore, in the broadest terms, issues of identity and forces that construe to create prejudice, and Jewish contributions to world culture and ideas. This new core exhibition, Human Rights After the Holocaust allows OJMCHE to dramatically enhance its power to accomplish its mission “to teach the universal lessons of the Holocaust” by including today’s experience of hate, racism, discrimination, and persecution.
Director Judy Margles
OJMCHE welcomes Portland back to the museum and the opening exhibitions with a public opening on Sunday, June 11, Noon-3pm featuring a street-wide cultural festival with a Chinese Lions dance by Portland Lee’s Association Dragon & Lion Dance team, Portland Taiko, and the Klezmer music of Michelle Alany and the Mystics.
Opening exhibitions
Human Rights After the Holocaust, Core Exhibition
Pioneering in its global scope, Human Rights After the Holocaust, developed by guest curator Scott Miller, former chief curator at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, and designed by Bryan Potter Design, calls on visitors to ponder the work needed to achieve dignity and rights for all persons. Article One of the Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by the United Nations in 1948, states: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. The exhibition exposes in stark reality the work needed to achieve dignity and rights for all and also illustrates the ways that hope is essential to our endeavors. This new core exhibition explores why and how human rights abuses, hatred, racial injustice, and genocide continue to happen and, simultaneously, illustrates the ways that hope and action are essential to our endeavors. Human Rights After the Holocaust is the first exhibition of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. The exhibition received generous support from the Kryszek Family in memory of Jakob and Sala Kryszek, survivors of the Holocaust.
Image caption: As Ukrainian refugee children streamed into neighboring Moldova in 2022, Israeli “Dream Doctors” provided medical care dressed as clowns to create a calming atmosphere. Palanca, Moldova, 2022. Courtesy John Rudoff.
The Jews of Amsterdam, Rembrandt and Pander, June 11 – September 24, 2023
Curated by Adjunct Curator for Special Exhibitions Bruce Guenther, The Jews of Amsterdam, Rembrandt and Pander, centers on the observations of the 400-year history of the Jews of Amsterdam by two master artists. Created in radically different periods and by two non-Jews, the works of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) and Henk Pander (1937-2023) portray the evolving life of the Jews of Amsterdam in times of great change. The 22 original etchings by Rembrandt are on loan from the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art and the six canvases by Henk Pander are on loan from the artist’s family. Read more.
Image captions left to right: Jacob Caressing Benjamin (Abraham Caressing Isaac). c. 1637. Etching on laid paper. B. 33, I/III (White & Boon state I); H. 148.
Intersection in Amsterdam East, Henk Pander. Oil on Canvas. 60” x 72”. 2022.
But a Dream, Salvador Dalí, June 11 – August 13, 2023
In 1966, Samuel Shore, head of Shorewood Publishers in New York, commissioned Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) to create a set of 25 pieces for a project commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. The Surrealist master delivered, Aliyah,The Rebirth of Israel, a series of 25 mixed media paintings that illustrate the epic history of the return of the Jewish people to their homeland — expressed in drawings, sketches, and water-color paintings. As inspiration, Dalí looked to the Bible as well as contemporary history to illustrate the meaning of the Hebrew word, “aliyah” which translates as “migration to the land of Israel.” The exhibition will be accompanied by materials from the museum collection that depict Israel’s history and is presented in observance of Israel’s 75th birthday. Dalí’s works are on loan from Ursula and David Blumenthal and the exhibition is funded by a grant from the Abraham Perlman Foundation. Read more.
Image caption: The Land of Milk and Honey, Salvador Dalí. Lithograph on Paper. 1968.
About Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education explores the legacy of the Jewish experience in Oregon, teaches the universal lessons of the Holocaust, and provides opportunities for intercultural conversation. Through exhibitions and public programming, OJMCHE focuses on Jewish art, history, and culture, while simultaneously recognizing the challenge of remaining relevant in a changing and tumultuous world. OJMCHE challenges our visitors to resist indifference and discrimination and to envision a just and inclusive place for all to live.