The rich religious and cultural life of American Jews is captured through home objects in “Judaism in the American Home,” a new exhibit beginning Sunday, April 14 at 2 p.m. in the Community Room (3210) at the David Adamany Undergraduate Library at Wayne State University.

Sponsored by the Wayne State University Library System and the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies, the exhibit features ritual objects, kitchen items, children’s toys and souvenirs from the vast Jewish Heritage Collection donated by former Birmingham resident, Mrs. Constance Harris, to the Special Collections Library of the University of Michigan. The items show the efforts made by Jews in the United States to define the evolving notions of “home” in their lives-- the romanticized representation and poignant memorialization of the Eastern European world that many of their ancestors left behind, their attempts to maintain home religious traditions and ties to Jews in Israel, and their emerging self-consciousness at “home” in America.

The exhibit opening on April 14 will feature a lecture called “Ceremony and Community Within the Question of 'Jewish Art'" from Georgetown professor Ori Soltes. Using objects from the exhibit as illustrations, the lecture will examine the question of how one defines Jewish art by discussing the purpose of ceremonial art and its relationship to non-ritual objects of Jewish popular culture.

“Judaism in the American Home” will be available for viewing from April 14 through May 12 in the Special Collections Room (3220) of the David Adamany Undergraduate Library. The hours are Sunday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, or to RSVP for the event opening, contact Ruth Stern at (313) 577-2679.

The Wayne State University Library System consists of the university's six libraries: The David Adamany Undergraduate Library, the Purdy/Kresge Library, the Shiffman Medical Library, the Arthur Neef Law Library, the Science and Engineering Library, and the Reuther Library and the School for Library and Information Science.
 
Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 370 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 29,000 students.