The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is New York’s contribution to the global responsibility to Never Forget. Opened in 1997, the Museum is committed to the crucial mission of educating diverse visitors about Jewish life before, during, and since the Holocaust.

The Museum plays a leading role in Holocaust education in New York City and the tri-state area, serving many thousands of school children each year; through its exhibitions, initiatives including the Holocaust Educator School Partnership Program (HESP), professional development opportunities, Speakers Bureau enabling conversations with survivors, and creation of tools and resources to support educators in teaching about both historical and contemporary antisemitism.

In addition to 25,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, the Museum maintains a permanent collection of more than 45,000 artifacts, photographs, and survivor testimonies and contains classrooms; a 375-seat theater (Edmond J. Safra Hall); The Garden of Stones, a memorial art installation designed by internationally acclaimed sculptor Andy Goldsworthy; The Peter & Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Resource Center, and JewishGen, the largest Jewish Genealogy database in the world. The Museum also hosts LOX at Café Bergson, an OU-certified café serving Eastern European specialties. And it has a special events hall for non-religious events and corporate rentals that seat 400.

Each year, the Museum presents over 100 public programs, connecting our community in person and online through lectures, book talks, concerts, and more. The Museum provides free admission to Holocaust survivors, active members of the military, first responders, New York City educators with current ID cards, and K-12 students from New York City public schools, and is free to the public on Thursdays between 4 – 8 PM.

Values

We Remember. The Museum ensures that the history of the Holocaust is preserved and shared to memorialize the six million Jewish people who were murdered by the Nazis and their local collaborators during the Holocaust.

We Teach. We educate all visitors about the vibrant lives and diverse traditions of the Jewish people past and present, to drive change through empathy, critical thinking, and cultural awareness.

We Combat. We are dedicated to combating antisemitism in all forms, consistent with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. We support the Jewish diaspora all over the world, from our local New York communities to Israel, home to the largest population of Holocaust survivors and almost half of the world’s Jews.

We Empower. Our visitors learn from history about the consequences of hate to inspire their fight for justice, combat antisemitism, extremism, and nationalism in all forms and places, to try to ensure Never Again is Now.

We Welcome. The Museum is a place for a diverse community to engage in learning about Jewish life and heritage through our exhibitions and programs.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage’s operations and programs are supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, by program support from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.