Museum of Jewish Heritage Presents the Mishpachah Festival on June 8

The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will present its annual Mishpachah Festival: A Celebration of Genealogy, Heritage, & Immigration, on Sunday, June 8, 2025. The day-long Mishpachah Festival (“Mishpachah” means “family” in Hebrew) – will run from 10:00am to 5:00pm and feature Jewish genealogy lectures, Jewish heritage panels, cooking demonstrations, live music, Yiddish dance, and activities for children and families, and a strong focus on immigration on the heels of the 100th anniversary of the Immigration Act of 1924.

“We are proud to present our third annual family festival, where we will celebrate and explore Jewish genealogy, heritage, and immigration along with our partners,” said Jack Kliger, CEO and President of the Museum of Jewish Heritage. “There will be insightful lectures and activities for people of all ages, as we open the Museum to welcome our ‘mishpachah’ and together discover more about heritage and community.”

Among the highlights of the day:

· Brooklyn Seltzer Boys in Conversation with Jessica Shaw

· The Shtetl Kitchen with Gefilteria

· Exploring the Immigrants’ Journey with The Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation, and the South Street Seaport Museum

· Mishpokhe in Yiddish – How the Forverts Newspaper Talked About Family with the Forward

The event is co-presented with JewishGen, the Museum’s Jewish Genealogical Research Division, and held in partnership with The Workers Circle, Forward, HIAS, The Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, the Educational Alliance’s 14th Street Y, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, The National Center for Jewish Film, the Leo Baeck Institute, and the Jewish Genealogical Society. The programs are made possible in part through a partnership with the Battery Park City Authority.

The event is held in-person at the Museum, located at 36 Battery Place in Battery Park City, and some activities will be livestreamed throughout the day. Tickets are free though pre-registration is strongly recommended. To view the full schedule and to RSVP, visit https://mjhnyc.org/events/mishpachah-2025/.

About The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

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 after 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, with initiatives such as its Holocaust Educator School Partnership Program, professional development opportunities, its Speakers Bureau which enables conversations with survivors, and the creation of tools and resources such as the newly released Antisemitism FAQ Educator Resource to support educators in teaching about both historical and contemporary antisemitism.

The Museum’s current offerings include Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark, an exhibition about the extraordinary rescue of Denmark’s Jewish population in 1943, a story of mutual aid and communal upstanding in difficult times for visitors aged 9 and up; The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do, a major exhibition offering a timely and expansive presentation of Holocaust history, on view in the main galleries; Survivor Stories: An Interactive Dialogue, an AI installation that features pre-recorded testimonies from 10 Holocaust survivors, addressing over 150 of the most frequently asked questions about their experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust; and Speaking Up! Confronting Hate Speech, a new exhibition which illustrates the prevalence of identity-based violence today, detailing the historical lessons of genocide and current examples of today’s pressing dangers to teach visitors about the connection between words and mass atrocities.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage maintains the Peter & Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Resource Center, a collection of almost 40,000 artifacts, photographs, documentary films, and survivor testimonies, and contains classrooms, a 375-seat theater (Edmond J. Safra Hall), special exhibition galleries, and a memorial art installation, Garden of Stones, designed by internationally acclaimed sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. The Museum also hosts LOX at Café Bergson an OU-certified café serving eastern European specialties.

Each year, the Museum presents over 100 public programs, connecting our community in person and virtually through lectures, book talks, concerts, and more. For more info visit: http://mjhnyc.org/events. The Museum receives general operating support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit mjhnyc.org.

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