Museum for Jewish history in
By Lauren Matthew
July 18, 2008
The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County, which, those involved with it say, has been in the works for years, held a dedication ceremony on June 24, during which local rabbis were on hand to affix mezuzot to the museum's door frames.
According to museum Director Jean Klerman, after the idea for the museum came a planning committee under the auspices of the Jewish Federation of Monmouth County. In February 2006, she said, that committee became a separate, not-for-profit entity.
The museum occupies barn space on Route 537 and
Klerman said that once the barn was chosen as a site for the museum, work began on deciding how to transform it. The museum occupies the barn's upstairs loft.
"It's a beautiful space," she said. What was an empty barn now has, Klerman continued, "two stair cases, a wheelchair lift, two bathrooms ... and a raised platform has been changed into a stage for lectures."
"We've put in and are putting in all kinds of electrical, theatrical and exhibit lighting, videos... so that we'll really be multimedia," she said.
The museum is volunteer-run, Klerman noted, and has a 22-member board of trustees, headed by museum President Michael Berman, who also chairs the Freehold Township Historic Preservation Commission. Berman, Klerman said, is the man responsible for the barn's overhaul, and turning it into a "multi-media interactive modern museum and performance space."
The goal of the museum, Berman said, is to share information that might otherwise be lost forever. "We're trying to tell stories," he said.
Developer Bernard Hochberg owned the barn, and agreed to preserve it for historical purposes in return for permission to build the shopping center.
"We are just renting it for a dollar a year from the landlord," Klerman said.
While the museum's doors are open and visitors are welcome, much work still must be done.
"We haven't officially had a grand opening, because we've just taken over the space. But we do have a sort of a temporary exhibit," Klerman said.
The temporary exhibit includes information about the relationship between
The grand opening date has not yet been set, she noted, but will be once the museum's permanent exhibit is in place. Plans for that include a timeline of Jewish life in the county, dating back to the 1700s.
Despite being busy with plans for the future, though, the museum has held a workshop for children to make and display their own mezuzot. Berman noted that he hopes to get youth as well as adults involved with the museum.
"We also, as a board, have approved an oral history project," Berman said.
That will entail getting Jewish residents whose families have lived in the area for years on video, talking about their lives in
The county has a very rich Jewish history, Berman said. For 120 years, affluent German and Sephardic families have come to spend their summers at the shore. Jews ran farms in the area in the 1920s and 30s. And even further back, families like the Solomon family (the same Solomon family whose barn now houses the museum) had their homes burned by the British around the time of the Battle of Monmouth.
"The fact is, (the history) goes back that far," Berman said. "There's a lot of history there that sometimes gets lost, and our job, I think, our mission, is to preserve that."
During July and August, the museum is open Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Appointments can be scheduled to allow for other visitation hours. There will be no admission fee, according to Klerman, until after the grand opening has taken place. A community open house is set for Aug. 21 from 2-8 p.m., she noted.
In the future, Klerman said the hope is that the museum will be open Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. And in September, when the museum will feature art by
Berman said he hopes that everyone -- not just the Jewish population -- will enjoy the museum, since, he said, the story of Jews in
"We hope it's a really dynamic space that attracts a lot of different people," he said.
For more information, visit the museum's Web site, www.jhmomc.org.