The Oregon Jewish Museum, the Pacific Northwest’s only Jewish museum, was founded to examine and preserve the rich cultural heritage of one of Oregon’s earliest immigrant groups and to bring innovative traveling exhibitions to the region. The history of OJM began more than a decade before its actual founding when, in 1974, volunteers formed the Oregon Jewish Historical Society and embarked on an extensive oral history project.
Today the Oregon Jewish Museum endeavors to build a dynamic institution that embraces Jewish identity and community, illustrating, by example, the ways in which a community with traditional roots preserves, teaches, and lives by its values as a distinct minority. We believe in the power of culture to build and engage community in a flexible and dynamic way, using the lens of culture to shape dialogue about historical and contemporary issues. |
