818 Howard Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70113
Website, tickets, social feeds here
- In its galleries and multimedia presentations, the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience spans 13 states and 350 years of history to explore the lives of a unique immigrant population.
- Located in the city’s mighty museum district, MSJE also offers public programs, educational outreach, and a classy little museum store. Drop by and say, “Shalom, Y’all!”
The history
The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience’s story begins during the 1980s at the Henry S. Jacobs Camp, a summer camp for Jewish children in Utica, Mississippi.
The camp became a repository for Judaica from around the region. The camp closed in 2012. Its collection would eventually be relocated to New Orleans to become the MSJE, which opened in 2021.
The museum’s galleries are dedicated to, according to its mission statement, teaching about “the many ways Jews in the American South influenced and were influenced by the distinct cultural heritage of their new homes.” The stories told in the museum span 13 states and more than 350 years.
In 2024, the museum expanded to include a research center and a space for changing exhibitions (read about a couple of them here and here).
Overview
The Jacobs Camp collection formed the spine of what’s become a stellar museum employing state-of-the-art exhibit design and multimedia displays (overseen by the Gallagher & Associates Museum Design firm that created the galleries at the neighboring National WWII Museum) to tell the remarkable stories of a distinctive kind of Southerner.
The guest experience begins with a nine-minute introductory film, included in museum admission, that establishes the time frame and geography of the story to come.
The opening gallery, titled “From Immigrants to Southerners,” begins with the 18th-century immigration by Jews into the young country’s lower states from Germany, Poland, Russia, France, Spain, England, Holland, the West Indies, and beyond. The narrative continues beyond the Civil War as Southern Jews expressed their identity in a variety of ways, including through occupations, social organizations, foodways, and religious life. The challenges faced by immigrant citizens in establishing livelihoods and maintaining social and religious practices were intimidating. Their successes, as told through the exhibits, was quietly heroic. “They blended in and they stood out,” reads some wall text. “Rich and poor, men and women, young and old; the immigrants who became Southern Jews were a diverse people.”
The museum’s second gallery, “Foundations of Judaism,” teaches the beliefs, values, language, and symbolism of the faith. A listening station allows visitors to hear the sounds of Jewish ceremonies, including music, singing, and calls of the shofar, or ram’s horn. This gallery is housed in an exquisite atrium-like space that’s ideal for contemplating sacred ideas and practices.
Gallery No. 3, “Entering a New Era,” brings the story to the present by addressing Southern Jewish experiences during the world wars of the 20th century then the American Civil Rights Movement, and the role of Southern Jews in popular culture. The gallery concludes with an interactive called the Community Quilt, which calls back to an actual quilt displayed in Gallery No. 1, created in 1885 by the Jewish Ladies’ Sewing Circle of Canton, Mississippi. “Each woman sewed her identity into her quilt square, using a variety of patterns, fabrics, and symbols,” the wall text says. Visitors are then invited to reflect on their own identity and background to compose their own digital quilt square to add to a clever light-table “quilt.” A “share your square” feature allows visitors to email themselves their creation. It’s a great conclusion to a superb presentation of history, culture, and faith.
The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience is at least a two-hour visit for swimmers and divers or museumgoers with a special interest in Southern history or the history of American Judaism, perhaps a little less for skimmers. (Definitions of those categories here.) Whatever category you fall into, the museum is a must-see experience.
Must-see objects
A few of the objects that make MSJE must-see:
- The Civil War diary of Simon Mayer, a soldier in the Confederate Army from Natchez, Mississippi. The diary is part of a portion of the gallery titled “Navigating Their Place,” exploring the complicated story of Jews, who while experiencing antisemitism widely participated in the racial hierarchy that oppressed African Americans in the South.
- The “From Dry Goods to Shopping Palaces” postcard display, located near a part of the gallery that tracks the progress of Jewish peddlers to general-store owners into merchant moguls, illustrates how modest Jewish-owned businesses became department stores across the South, from Neiman-Marcus in Texas to Stein Mart in Mississippi.
- The groundbreaking shovel from the 1969 opening of the Jacobs Camp, the first home of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience.
Public programs
The museum programs a lively slate of public programs, which usually take place both on-site and online, examining all aspects of the Southern Jewish experience. In preparation for your visit to the museum, check here to see the schedule of upcoming events and make your plans to tune in. Or, tune backward through time to watch previous presentations archived on the museum’s YouTube channel.
Museum store
Clever caps and garments, some featuring the museum’s signature “Shalom, Y’all” catch phrase, are displayed alongside maps, posters, books, and keepsakes. Shop the store’s online site, which is here, before or after your visit.
Parking
Your best bet is street parking. Download this app, or find a kiosk, to pay for it.
Lunch
The museum’s location puts it at the center of a nexus of great restaurants of all budget dimensions. You are so close (three minutes driving, nine minutes walking) to Central City BBQ that to miss it would be a mistake. Same for Willie Mae’s NOLA, which specializes in Southern cuisine. For breakfast and brunch, try the CBD branch of the Bearcat Cafe.
Drinks
You are a six-minute drive to the Pontchartrain Hotel’s rooftop Tin Roof bar, which offers cocktails with a lovely view of the city’s skyline. A little closer is Rosie’s on the Roof at the National WWII Museum’s Higgins Hotel, which offers same.
Website
In addition to the usual visitation tips, prompts, shop links, and public programming previews, the site offers a portal to the museum’s research center, with assets for researchers, an oral history studio, a reading room, and special exhibition gallery. Also on the site are field-trip options for local educators – an often undervalued function of museums.
Extra thing
As you plan a museumgoing visit to New Orleans, definitely include MSJE in your itinerary for your couple of days (at least) in the museum district. It’s within easy walking distance of the museums on Magazine and Camp and will add a new level of understanding of an important and little-known component of Southern life. Says the wall text near the exit: “The Museum hopes to impart the legacy and traditions of Jews in the American South and to inspire its visitors toward a deeper understanding of the American experience.”
