A FEW WORDS ABOUT US

 

Our collection of artifacts and the permanent display reflect only one aspect of our eclectic paradigm—--the artifact centered approach of material culture. Additionally, however, our presentations express ethnicity through linguistics, folklore, religion, the exile experience, politics, and oral history. The stories are as often complementary as they are divergent. Paradoxically, in concert, they blend together and form the unique narrative of the Jewish experience. 

 

As such, our institution serves as a primary resource of artifacts and as an organization dedicated to ongoing research. Our projects convey the most profound historical experiences, spiritual beliefs, daily struggles, and leisure activities of the longest surviving nation in the West—--the Jewish people. In sociological terms, it is common for a culture group in exile to retain its identity for approximately three generations. In 1948, upon the founding of modern Israel, the global Jewish community had maintained a discrete, observable identity in exile for two millennia, or eighty generations. 

 

Beyond a mere celebration of this achievement, however, the Hollander Collection has placed this experience in academic, quantifiable terms. From this vantage point, the secrets of, and continued challenges to, Jewish identity might be examined by the leaders of various immigrant and exile communities, so that each might be supported in attempts to document, narrate, and preserve its most precious legacy--—its heritage.