27. January 12 – March 25, 2007
Molly Picon, Fridl Braur and a Mishpocha* of Jewish Music
The Eugene and Marie Buxton Collection of Jewish Music and Performing Arts
*Mishpocha (Family – Yiddish)
The first exhibition of the TJMuseum collection of Jewish music and the performing arts.
DESCRIPTION: In 2004 The Temple Judea Museum was able to establish The Eugene and Marie Buxton Collection of Jewish Music and the Performing Arts through a generous gift of Anne Buxton, in memory of her parents. This was the first exhibition of the newly formed collection whose primary purpose is the preservation of materials that document the rich heritage of Jewish music and the broader subject of the performing arts as a Jewish preoccupation.
Music is an intangible. So how does a museum formulate such a collection? What objects explain Jewish music? How does a museum go beyond music to the broader subject of the Performing Arts? How does one make sight and sound tangible? Look around!
In two brief years The Temple Judea Museum managed to collect an amazing variety of materials. Some are displayed in this exhibition. The stories are equally large and small, expected and surprising: The Yiddish theater; the rich cultural life of pre-State Israel; the background stories of Hava Nagilah and Hatikvah; a photograph of violinist Yehudi Menuhin entertaining US Troops in Alaska during WWII; a dance recital in Jerusalem in 1923, are all here, and much, much more.
The importance of meaningful music experiences to effective worship is made especially clear through materials collected by the Archives of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel. To name only two – the contract of the congregation’s first organist, and a Certificate of Excellence in Jewish Music awarded to a Hebrew School student – it is clear that this synagogue and its museum form an appropriate home for a collection with this focus.
