Blog from Battery Place

While there is a lot to celebrate this fall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage including new exhibitions, family programs, parties, performances, and baseball season, we’d like you to be aware of our holiday hours before you plan your trip to see us. The Museum will close at 3 p.m. on September 8, 17, 22, and 29 and will be closed on September 9, 10, 23, 24, and 30, and October 1. We suggest you visit early and often, especially if you’d like to shop at the Pickman Museum Shop for something special for the holidays.

This post is from our web and technology-savvy colleague Allison.

The Museum’s Online Collection just got a bit more interesting with the inclusion of 3D artifacts and page flipping books. Museum staff chose some of our most visually interesting and powerful artifacts to display as 3D objects. Now you can spin and zoom into this double-decker Hanukkah menorah used by two families during World War I or flip through a chilling children’s book designed to teach anti-Semitism. Discover these and other 3D artifacts and books here. Other improvements to the website include the ability to see if an artifact is on display in the museum, better searching capability, and the option to share interesting artifacts on Facebook, Twitter, or on another social media platform.

We’re very happy to announce that the Museum was just chosen for a 2010 Conservation Treatment Grant Award that will go toward conservation of wedding contracts (ketubbot). The treatment is to be done by paper conservator Caroline Rieger at Rieger Art Conservation. A ketubbah can be a simple paper or very elaborate hand-painted work, but they are always precious in the eyes of their owners and to our Museum which celebrates Jewish culture and continuity.

*image: just one of the many ketubbot in our collection. Learn more about this and other items in the collection.

Today is the last day to see Egon Schiele’s “Portrait of Wally,” here at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. After tonight at 8 p.m., the famous painting will be sent to Vienna where it will reside at the Leopold Museum. If you are curious about Wally’s background, there will be a fascinating panel discussion tonight featuring some art restitution experts who will trace the painting’s past and put it into historical context.

This blog is from Devina, our intern this week.

Every summer, the HSAPS organize and take part in a community service project. This year we met with Holocaust survivors from a group called Self Help for a day of tours, games, and companionship. As we walked through the Museum, my partner for the afternoon told me her story and how she believes that she is the youngest survivor of Auschwitz. I was in shock that she wanted to explore the 2nd floor (which deals with The War against the Jews) of the Museum after I gave an overview of all floors. She doesn’t have any children because she was afraid that they would face the same kind of anti-Semitism that she did . There’s no one to continue speaking about her after she passes, but I told her I would carry on her story and tell those who are willing to listen.

The community service project was a great way for us to interact with and get to know survivors. Throughout the internship, we have heard a survivor speak every week, and there have been so many different views and stories of this horrible time. The project showed me personally that although survivors have been through so much hardship, they can still have a positive outlook . They enjoyed playing Pictionary with us, they were really engaging, and they also shared funny stories. I want to thank the Community Service committee (Rebecca, Javier, Jairo, Freddy, and Mayra) for allowing me and my fellow HSAPs to be a part of their project.

This blog is from our HSAP of the week, Laila. In addition to being a big help to the Communications department this week, we very much enjoyed her cooking, too.

This year the High School Apprentices chose to share their heritage in a language that everyone speaks--food!

The 15 HSAPS come from all different countries around the world including China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Jamaica, Colombia, Ecuador, and many more. But, since we’re all so busy, we don’t get to learn much about each other.. So, every year the HSAPs plan an event that celebrates heritage. This year, we all brought food that we feel represents our background. We also brought in an artifact and music to complement our food offering. Each HSAP’s display included their traditional dish, the artifact, and the flag of their country, or in my case… flags. I am of Dominican and Egyptian descent. To illustrate both of my cultures I brought in an Egyptian artifact and Dominican food. I brought in a miniature Sphinx because as soon as someone sees a sphinx or a pyramid, they automatically think of Egypt. I also brought mashed plantains with fried cheese to share. This food definitely represents my Dominican heritage because when I go to the Dominican Republic, this is all I eat for breakfast and sometimes dinner. Also, I have tons of plantains growing in the back of my house in Dominican Republic. I was worried that no one would like it but it turned out to be a hit.

I think “A Taste of Our Heritage” took us out of our comfort zones, in a good way. Sampling all of the different foods helped us learn a lot about each other, which was our ultimate goal. Unfortunately, this event leaves us on a bittersweet note since the summer is close to an end, and we will soon have to part from each other. But, as a happy reminder of our global feast, we collected the recipes and created our own cookbook to keep.

Kudos to the heritage event committee: Oseia, Devina, Siddiqa, Haja, and Ollie and our program leaders Jamie and Bonnie.

Photo of the HSAPS. Laila is in front in the red dress.

We just announced our September and October public programs, and it is sure to be a thought-provoking New Year at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Whether you enjoy baseball, science, fashion, mah jongg, or kids programming, there is something for every interest. Check out the schedule and purchase your tickets early as many programs sell out in advance.

Wally’s arrival last week was very exciting, to be sure. Highlights include seeing the portrait for the first time as it was handed over from Immigration Customs Enforcement to the Leopold Foundation, admiring the delicacy of the brushstrokes, and watching it be hung with the greatest of care on our third floor. We even managed to get a non-flash photo with three of our four staff redheads next to it.

Following the dramatic ceremony held here last Thursday there was a long line to see the painting; it extended far into The Morgenthaus: A Legacy of Service. The week’s activities were chronicled by a documentary film crew that has been working on the film for at least three years. In fact they came here to film in 2008, long before we knew Wally would be visiting.

Members of the staff who attended the ceremony last week told me they felt like they were a part of history, but my favorite line was this: “I went home and told my mom how that moment was going to stay with me.” It was definitely a day that reminded us why we do the work we do.

There has been a lot of press generated by the ceremony, and I invite you to Google, Bing, or Yahoo “Portrait of Wally” to read it. I warn you, however, that if you do an image search of Portrait of Wally on Yahoo.com you will be shown an image of Wally from Scott Adams’ cartoon Dilbert, and that just made me laugh out loud. It also made me appreciate that the world is full of interesting connections, including those I would not necessarily make myself.

Photo of speakers from the ceremony held last week. From left: Robert Morgenthau, Andre Bondi, Howard Spiegler, Ray Kelly, Jim Hayes, Preet Bharara, David Marwell. Photo by Melanie Einzig.

You may be wondering why the blog has been quiet for the past few days. We’ve been gearing up for a very exciting guest who is arriving this Thursday. Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally will be on display at the Museum of Jewish Heritage from July 29-August 18. Abby will post some behind-the-scenes stories soon, but trust us, you should go ahead and plan your trip to the Museum to see the portrait before it goes back to Austria in a few weeks.

caption and credit:
Egon Schiele
(Tulln 1890 - 1918 Wien)
Bildnis Wally Neuzil, 1912
Portrait of Wally Neuzil, 1912
Öl auf Holz
Oil on wood
32,7 x 39,8 cm
Leopold Museum, Vienna

This blog is from William, our intern this week.

One of the perks of working as an HSAP is that we go on a trip every week. Whether it’s The Jewish Museum or a ferry ride to Liberty Island, each of these trips has some connection to Jewish heritage and more importantly, to our own thoughts and impressions. This past week, we went to the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side. I was especially excited about this trip because not only do I live on the Lower East Side, I live very close to this museum and as a neighborhood resident, I felt a special connection to the trip. I came to America at a very young age and the Lower East Side is all that I’ve ever known. Growing up in an apartment, I was very fortunate because most of my mom’s friends did, in fact, live in tenements. When we visited them, we would all squish together into a small room of a two-room apartment occupied by 10. To say that I felt uncomfortable would be an understatement. So as you can imagine, going on a tour of the Tenement Museum was a big deal for me. I’ve been on the tour a couple of times but each time I visit, I always learn something different, discover something new, and see something I’ve never seen before.

During the tour, we got to see what it was like to actually live in a tenement back in the day. Through buildings preserved for educational purposes from decades ago, we were able to go into three different tenements. When I was standing in one of the tenements, I actually felt as if I went back several decades years and experienced what these people had to go through. Russians, Germans, and all different groups of people were forced to live together, to work and respect each other all for one common goal-- the hope for a better life. This reminded me of the Museum’s mission of tikkun olam, (repair of the world). Repairing the world doesn’t have to mean huge group efforts ; it can be the little things like helping an elderly person carry the groceries or even saying “good morning” to a neighbor. These small random acts of kindness are what make this world a beautiful place and a hopeful one. That’s basically what the people living in tenements did for each other. When the tour was over, I wasn’t inspired or especially moved, but I felt blessed. Seeing what people had to deal with in the past made complaining about how bad my room is seem so selfish and ignorant. I guess ignorance really isn’t bliss.

Overall, the trip was a great experience because I was able to see what a tenement really was , and why it’s considered a historical landmark today. What I find especially amazing is that though the Lower East Side as well other areas in NYC are going through gentrification, there are landmarks such as the Tenement Museum that never let us forget our history. Lastly, realizing all the hardships people were able to overcome, if we take the chance to change circumstances, imagine all we could do.

In a small ceremony held late yesterday to honor what would have been the 125th birthday of Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes, diplomats from Portugal and Brazil and other special guests gathered at the Museum of Jewish Heritage to pay tribute to the Consul General of Portugal who was responsible for writing out visas for some 30,000 refugees, including 10,000 Jews, from his consulate in Bordeaux, allowing thousands of families to seek shelter from the war.

His ledger, a leather-bound book with delicate handwriting, filled with names of visa recipients, is “evidence of his everyday work, and evidence of those who he saved,” said David G. Marwell, MJH director, at the intimate event. The ledger is now on display in our “Rescuers Gallery” alongside the stories of Chiune Sugihara, Raoul Wallenberg, and Luiz Martin Souza Dantes, other courageous diplomats who risked their careers and lives to save Jews.

The UN Ambassador to Portugal, Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, spoke briefly to say that as a Portuguese and as a diplomat he was “happy and proud to be here” and told the group that the members of the Portuguese and diplomatic communities were proud to include people like de Sousa Mendes in their ranks. As a side note, whenever Ambassador Cabral referred to the man of the hour, with his delightful pronunciation, it sounded as if he was saying “a super mensch,” which is not far off.

The event was organized by the charming João Crisóstomo, who has made a career of enlightening the world about the acts of men like de Sousa Mendes.

Although he selflessly saved thousands, Sousa Mendes was brought before a disciplinary panel in Lisbon and dismissed from his position in the Foreign Ministry. This left him destitute and unable to support his family of 13 children. He died penniless in 1954. On October 18, 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Aristides de Sousa Mendes as Righteous Among the Nations. Only in 1988, thanks to external pressure and his children’s efforts, did his government grant him total rehabilitation.

In a small ceremony held late yesterday to honor what would have been the 125th birthday of Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes, diplomats from Portugal and Brazil and other special guests gathered at the Museum of Jewish Heritage to pay tribute to the Consul General of Portugal (quoted above) who was responsible for writing out visas for some 30,000 refugees, including 10,000 Jews, from his consulate in Bordeaux, allowing thousands of families to seek shelter from the war.

His ledger, a leather-bound book with delicate handwriting, filled with names of visa recipients, is “evidence of his everyday work, and evidence of those who he saved,” said David G. Marwell, MJH director, at the intimate event. The ledger is now on display in our “Rescuers Gallery” alongside the stories of Chiune Sugihara, Raoul Wallenberg, and Luiz Martin Souza Dantes, other courageous diplomats who risked their careers and lives to save Jews.

The UN Ambassador to Portugal, Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, spoke briefly to say that as a Portuguese and as a diplomat he was “happy and proud to be here” and told the group that the members of the Portuguese and diplomatic communities were proud to include people like de Sousa Mendes in their ranks. As a side note, whenever Ambassador Cabral referred to the man of the hour, with his delightful pronunciation, it sounded as if he was saying “a super mensch,” which is not far off.

The event was organized by the charming João Crisóstomo, who has made a career of enlightening the world about the acts of men like de Sousa Mendes.

Although he selflessly saved thousands, Sousa Mendes was brought before a disciplinary panel in Lisbon and dismissed from his position in the Foreign Ministry. This left him destitute and unable to support his family of 13 children. He died penniless in 1954. On October 18, 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Aristides de Sousa Mendes as Righteous Among the Nations. Only in 1988, thanks to external pressure and his children’s efforts, did his government grant him total rehabilitation.

This weekend’s Wall Street Journal features a review of our photography exhibit, Traces of Memory: A Contemporary Look at the Jewish Past in Poland. The writer, William Meyers praised photographer Chris Schwarz for his photos that are “informed with a passion—not just to document, but to commemorate.” We invite you to come see the exhibit before it closes on August 15.

This blog posted by Melissa Martens, our Senior Curator for Exhibitions.

When we first decided to create an exhibition on the topic of mah jongg, we realized we would need to actually learn the game that has so long been a part in Jewish-American life. How hard could it be, right?

A couple of months into the project’s development, about twenty Museum staff members started convening regularly over lunch to decipher the “game of a thousand wonders.” For us, the game posed at least a thousand wonders—the naming of the tiles (is that tile called “red” or “dragon” or “red dragon”?) , the Charleston exchange (“are we on the second left yet?”), and the reading of the score card (“how does one possibly acquire five of the same tile?”).

Despite our intimidation and frustration, we persevered. Under the tutelage of Deputy Director, Ivy Barsky, we learned to make our way through a full round of a mah jongg in under an hour (and sometimes we didn’t even play the consecutive hand). Along the way we asked a lot of questions, we called the National Mah Jongg League hotline when we were stumped, we made fun of each other, and we laughed. A lot. New sides of our personalities came out for the first time: shyness, cleverness, shrewdness, down-right competitiveness! Some of our less “lucky” players threatened to abandon the game altogether; to their credit—they stuck with it.

By the fourth month something strange began to take hold: the game that had been so elusive was now starting to occupy our minds at frequent intervals. We whispered to each other in the hallways about the timing of the next game, we dreamt of getting our own mah jongg sets of various vintages, we talked about our favorite hands at the water cooler. Some of us even painted our nails. This was getting serious.
It was at this point we knew we were ready for the next level: playing on evenings, on Sundays, in our own neighborhoods! We couldn’t get enough. Where did everybody live? How many boroughs did we need to cover? Babysitters were obtained, husbands and boyfriends placated, and favorite cafes (with square tables) identified. The Museum’s next generation of mah jongg enthusiasts was going public.

So around Brooklyn, we convene every few weeks to play maajh. And all of the old traditions get recreated through the social alchemy of the game: the gossip, the clacking, the victories, the defeats, and the snacks (our own favorites like sparkling rose’, tartines, and low-cal soft serve). Our circle keeps expanding to include friends, neighbors, colleagues, and those who are just excited to learn. Maybe someday we’ll have a seaside venue for our game, as in http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/nyregion/11ritual.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=homepage


Personally, I imagine that I’ll be playing mah jongg for many years to come—ok, forever. When I see a staff member walk into our “Project Mah Jongg” exhibition gallery to spontaneously play a game with visitors, I know that we are living a tradition we once only read about as “Jewish history.”

Photo: members of the staff play mah jongg.

This blog comes from Emily, our department intern.

Recently, I’ve started giving tours of the Museum to camp groups, and it’s been a very exciting and rewarding experience. I’ve been training to give a tour called “My House to Your House,” and Monday I had a really great group of 5th-6th grader campers. I was extremely impressed by their interest in the Museum and their maturity. As a new tour guide, I sometimes worry about the behavior of the camp groups, but these kids were absolutely fantastic. They were genuinely interested in the artifacts and Jewish heritage. The last artifact we discussed on the first floor is an Anti-Semitic postcard, and after discussing the artifact, one of the boys gave a very moving and eloquent answer when I asked the group why discrimination happens. He said that discrimination is a result of ignorance about other people’s traditions and that it’s wrong and can be solved by listening to and learning from others.

Normally, we don’t include the second floor on a tour for young children because it focuses on the Holocaust. However, one of the counselors asked if they could see it. At this point, I could tell that these kids were mature and informed enough to really experience these galleries in a meaningful way, so we went upstairs. Again, the kids and their counselors were excellent. As we discussed the Holocaust, World War II, propaganda, and genocide, the kids gave really great answers to the questions I asked them, and they asked me some really thoughtful questions themselves. For instance, one girl asked me about the bag that Thea Gottesman sewed to go along with the dress she made after liberation. She wanted to know if the bag was to help Thea remember, the way a glass is broken at Jewish weddings to remember the sadness even as joy is celebrated. I thought the connection she made was quite interesting.

The same boy who answered my question about discrimination told me he wanted to come back to the Museum with his family, which made me very happy. I was really delighted to work with such a good group of young people.

Photo: Thea Gottesman with her dress.

It’s Bastille Day, and since I spend every evening of the first three weeks in July watching the Tour de France with my husband, I have been trying to find a natural connection between it and the blog. The world’s greatest bicycle race began July 3 and continues until July 25, bringing together bicyclists from all over the world to ride more than 2,200 miles over cobble stones, mountains, and of course, the Champs E’lysees.

It’s the 97th Tour, which made me wonder what happened with the Tour during World War II. According to the official Tour de France website, there was no official Tour between 1939 and 1947. Additional sources say it was suspended, but other low-key races were put together that included the most popular riders. I guess this would be akin to a strike by the National Hockey League and having well-known players decide to play at Wollman Rink. Henri Desgrange, the original race organizer, and Jacques Goddet, his deputy and replacement, had planned a race for 1940 but dropped the idea after the German invasion in June.

Irène Némirovsky vividly describes the evacuation of Paris in her remarkable novel Suite Française. If the evacuation had taken place even a month later and if the race had still been held, imagine what a bicycle race would have been like: Parisians evacuating to the South and in and among all those traffic jams more than 100 bicyclists darting between the cars, the straight-aways taken at usually breakneck speed clogged with Peugeots, and the absence of faithful fans lining the streets to cheer for their beloved Frenchmen to bring home the maillot jaune (yellow jersey).

And speaking of Irène, this fall the Memorial de la Shoah in Paris will display an adaptation of our exhibition Woman of Letters: Irène Némirovsky and Suite Française. We are so pleased that the exhibition will be seen at this beautiful museum in Irene’s adopted home. When it first opened here, the French media made it clear that the exhibition belonged in Paris, and now it will have its rightful place. Our partners at IMEC, the caretakers of Irene’s work, are co-producing the exhibition.

Vive la France!

Photo is of a young Walter Faerber riding in a bike in Berlin, 1934. Gift of Walter and Phyllis Ferber

This blog comes from Lisa, who unfortunately does not know Norwegian or Swedish.

The Museum is delighted to welcome visitors from around the globe as well as locally. While many of you know that we have an award winning audio tour available in English, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese, you may not know that our very knowledgeable and friendly Gallery Educators collectively speak 16 languages * and can provide tours of the core and special exhibitions in the language of your choice. Please just call ahead so that we can meet your group’s needs. Tours can be scheduled for groups of 10 more people with advance reservation. For more information, contact groupvisits@mjhnyc.org.

*Afrikaans, ASL, English, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish
Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish


Come visit us soon!


*shown here: Gallery Educator Sally Frishberg. Photo by Melanie Einzig

The HSAPS started full-time work this week. The Communications Department's first special guest was Rebecca, whose final assignment was this blog.

Being the first 2010 High School Apprentice (HSAP) to blog, I thought it might help if everyone knew a little more about what the job entails. As Abby mentioned in her blog about our graduation, we took bi-weekly classes from February until June, where we became better acquainted with the Museum, Jewish heritage, and our own heritage.

Now we are working full time at the Museum, however this is not any normal internship. This internship gives us the opportunity to go far beyond that. This summer we will be working in six of the Museum’s ten departments. This first week I worked in the communications department. Just to give you an idea of what HSAPs could do in one week: I converted a Word file into an easy to read Excel chart, wrote press releases about four of my fellow HSAPs, researched outreach for an upcoming project, filed media kits, and now I am blogging.

Hannah Senesh, a strong woman who fought for her people, will be the subject of an exhibition in October. The Museum will honor Hannah by showing what she did to help other people. She was my inspiration for the week. The fourth floor of the Museum, where the staff offices are, has become my community for this summer. I will work with most people here and my main goal is to help them to achieve their goals. In communications I spent a lot of time researching places to advertise this exhibit and other public programs at the Museum. The goal of the Hannah Senesh exhibition is to get as many people as we can to see the exhibit and to really be inspired by Hannah and her acts of bravery. The inspiration can come in unexpected ways, such as it has with me this week, where I am using my ideas and research skills to help the others around me.

Photo of Rebecca and her proud parents at graduation 6/23/10. Photo by Melanie Einzig.

We just wanted to thank our readers and contributors on this, the second anniversary of Blog from Battery Place. In case you were wondering, the traditional second anniversary gift is cotton, but we’d be just as happy if you bought something from the Pickman Museum Shop and kept it for yourself. While we do carry some cotton items like the fantastic bib shown here, we’re not picky. Jewelry always makes a great anniversary gift.

As this country prepares to celebrate the 234th birthday of the United States of America with barbecues, trips to the shore, a baseball game or two, and if you’re lucky enough — a view of a local fireworks display, it is worth noting that the Museum of Jewish Heritage next week begins its summer institute for educators called Holocaust and Genocide. The education department brings together scholars, eye witnesses, and survivors to present a survey of genocide beginning with the Armenians and ending with the Darfuri.

Last week, while playing mah jongg in the Project Mah Jongg exhibit during my lunch break, I exclaimed to my colleagues, “I can’t believe I get paid for this!” While we can’t offer visitors a salary just for playing, we are just itching for you to stop by for a pick-up game or a lesson.

Visitors are welcome to play at the game table in the exhibition at any time when it is open to the public. If you don’t have four people in your party, have the visitor services staff give us a call upstairs to see if anyone is free to play.

Scheduled mah jongg pick-up games with a Museum representative will be held every Wednesday through August 26th at 1 p.m. Lessons will be offered at 12 noon on July 28th, and August 25th. A fall schedule for pick-up games and lessons will be posted here toward the end of the summer.

All pick-up games and lessons are free with Museum admission.

Image: the scene of the crime. Photo by Melanie Einzig.

The new class of High School Apprentices graduated last Wednesday, and with that came the culmination of four months of seminars, tours, and immersion into Jewish history; the room was alive with energy. The audience of devoted family, teachers, friends, and HSAP Alumni listened to remarks from Ivy Barsky, Elizabeth Edelstein, and Gallery Educator and hidden child Sally Frishberg about what kind of impact these 15 adolescents would make on the world. The Apprentices are trained to give tours to young people all summer, to teach them about Jewish culture and history, while making them feel a part of the Museum.

I’m still kvelling (to feel great pride) over Javier Medina’s speech on behalf of the graduates. I will not excerpt the entire speech, but I will share my favorite part:

On the first floor, there’s an artifact displayed called a huppah. It’s a tent of sorts, decorated with Hebrew writing and symbols. At traditional Jewish weddings, the bride and groom are wed under the huppah, which is usually held up by poles and is open on the sides. The fact that the huppah is open on all sides is meant to show that the couple, united under the Jewish faith, is still open to the world and all its elements.

In a similar way, this museum is a sort of huppah for all of us here. We are united under the cause of continuing the mission of this museum. While doing so, however, we stay open to the different cultures of the world, as many of them can connect to Jewish heritage. For example, there is currently a special exhibition about the Chinese game mah jongg, and how it is a part of Jewish culture. Forging connections like that is one of our primary roles in this museum.

To Javier, Jairo, William, Clarisse, Frederick, Devina, George, Rebecca, Laila, Siddiqa, Dashawn, Mayra, Haja, Oseia, and Okeem I say welcome to the Museum family, and thank you for sharing in our belief that there is hope for our future.

Today’s blog is by Lisa.

Today the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust welcomed a delegation of staff and interns from the Tribute WTC Visitor Center. The Tribute Center is an institution dedicated to sharing a traumatic period of history through the voices of survivors, family members, eye witnesses, and others who want to bear witness to the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Like our Museum, they depend on first-person accounts to convey the significance of this history. Their guide this morning was our Gallery Educator and Holocaust survivor Sol Rosenkranz, who at age 92,works out with a personal trainer and just makes us all smile whenever we see him.

I had the opportunity to visit the Tribute Center last month and found it imbued with humanity and love, and an incredibly profound experience. The Tribute Center offers both gallery tours and walking tours of the World Trade Center site that provide a powerful way to understand the events of 9/11 in context. Our staff has been invited to tour their galleries in August, and I encourage people from everywhere, especially New York City, to visit. Learn more about this important neighbor of ours.

Photo of Sol and our visitors from the Tribute Center by Abby.

While strolling around Battery Park you may encounter a panda or a wild turkey. We’re now accustomed to such sights, but imagine our surprise at learning that we now have a piano right in the middle of the park. It is part of an art installation by Luke Jerram and the charitable organization Sing for Hope. Some 60 pianos have been scattered throughout the city. The pianos are not just art to be seen, their ivories are meant to be tickled. Passersby are encouraged to play the piano and upload videos photos, and stories about the pianos. After the project all pianos will be donated to schools and community groups.