Since its founding in 1973, Yeshiva University Museum’s changing exhibits have celebrated the culturally diverse intellectual and artistic achievements of 3,000 years of Jewish experience. The Museum provides a window into Jewish culture around the world and throughout history through its acclaimed multi-disciplinary exhibitions and award-winning publications. By educating audiences of all ages with dynamic interpretations of Jewish life, past and present, along with wide-ranging cultural offerings and programs, the Museum attracts young and old, Jewish and non-Jewish audiences.

YUM shares a new state-of-the-art facility with four partners, three of whom are renowned research and archival institutions focusing on specific aspects of Jewish history and culture: YIVO, the American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardic Federation, and the Leo Baeck Institute. The Museum has four galleries, an exhibition arcade, an outdoor sculpture garden, a docent lounge, and a children’s workshop room, in addition to its own suite of offices. The Museum has access to a 250 seat, handicapped-accessible auditorium with a state-of-the- art AV projection room, various smaller meeting rooms, a lunchroom and a kosher café.

Yeshiva University Museum presents exhibitions with an interdisciplinary focus that reflect the diversity of the Museum’s collection of more than 8,000 artifacts. “Our primary focus is the interpretation of Jewish history from a multi-disciplinary perspective, and we produce two types of exhibitions, usually shown concurrently,” explains director Sylvia A. Herskowitz. “One exhibit examines a Jewish community or historic event; the other features emerging or established contemporary artists working on Jewish themes.” Occasionally, the Museum presents traveling exhibitions.

As a resource for scholarly research, Yeshiva University Museum’s exhibitions provide unique opportunities for artists, historians, collectors, and ethnographers to examine, compare, and research objects, ideas, and techniques. Its contemporary art shows offer the public the opportunity to survey art being created by living Jewish artists throughout the world.

Yeshiva University Museum’s programs are designed to expand the intellectual and creative imagination of its diverse audiences. They include family craft workshops, lectures, films, concerts, and multilingual exhibition tours in English, Hebrew, Spanish, Russian, and Yiddish.