Jewish-American Hall of Fame Plaques Featured in “The Impact of Jewish Intellect”Exhibit at Virginia

The Jewish-American Hall of Fame plaques will form “The Impact of Jewish Intellect on America and the World” exhibit, that will ask the provocative question “What If?--What contributions to mankind might have been made by the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust or their descendants? What if one of the murdered millions had discovered a cure for cancer, HIV/AIDS or Alzheimer’s? Would fossil fuels have become obsolete had an alternative been discovered by one of the Jewish children exterminated by the Nazis?”

[USPRwire, Wed Apr 28 2010] When Mel Wacks launched The Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals in 1969, he also had a dream that someday there would be an actual Jewish-American Hall of Fame. exhibit in a museum. And so, each year he had a bronze reproduction made from the artist’s large original plaster models, and mounted on a walnut board. It was not until a decade later, that some of these plaques were first displayed at the Magnes Museum in Berkeley, California. But the exhibit ended over ten years ago when the Magnes briefly merged with the San Francisco Jewish Museum--and the plaques were relegated to the storage area. All of The Jewish-American Hall of Fame. plaques were exhibited for the first time in 2008, at the Washington DC headquarters of B’nai B’rith International, but this display was not open to the public.

Wacks relates, “But just as the Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years before finding the Promised Land, The Jewish-American Hall of Fame had to wait 40 years before it found a permanent home.” This came about when Mel read an article about Holocaust survivor Jay Ipson founding the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond. Mel called up Jay, they chatted, and Mel threw out the idea of permanently exhibiting The Jewish-American Hall of Fame plaques in the Museum. Jay made the 2-hour train trip to Washington, visited the exhibit at B’nai B’rith, and said “Yes.”

The Jewish-American Hall of Fame plaques will form “The Impact of Jewish Intellect on America and the World” exhibit, that will ask the provocative question “What If?--What contributions to mankind might have been made by the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust or their descendants? What if one of the murdered millions had discovered a cure for cancer, HIV/AIDS or Alzheimer’s? Would fossil fuels have become obsolete had an alternative been discovered by one of the Jewish children exterminated by the Nazis?” This display will complement another new exhibit entitled “Those People,” created by California-based artist Esther Glina Montagner, consisting of suitcases bearing the names of family members who disappeared in the “night and fog” of the Holocaust. This moving artistic statement also begs the question of What If…. What if Montagner’s family and countless others had been permitted to find refuge in America? How might the world have been different?

The beginning of the “The Impact of Jewish Intellect” exhibit features the Emma Lazarus plaque, along with her sonnet The New Colossus, including the immortal words “"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Walking down a corridor, visitors will view plaques pertaining to The Jewish Presence in Early America, followed by In Defense of Liberty, Righteousness, Righteousness Shall You Pursue, and then a rotating group that features members of the entertainment industry.

The Jewish Presence in Early America. the Jews Who Helped Columbus (Don Isaac Abravanel, Luis Santangel and Abraham Zacuto), Asser Levy & the First Jewish Settlers in America (1654), and the Touro Synagogue (founded 1763). In Defense of Liberty features Navy Commodore Uriah P. Levy (1792-1862), Civil War Congressional Medal recipient Leopold Karpeles (1838-1909), major league baseball player and spy Moe Berg (1902-1972), and World War II Flying Ace Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal (1917-2008). Righteousness, Righteousness Shall You Pursue celebrates educator Rebecca Gratz (1781-1869), fighter for women’s rights Ernestine Rose (1810-1892), pediatrician Bela Schick (1877-1967), physicist & universal advocate of peace Albert Einstein (1879-1955), discoverer of the Polio vaccine Jonas Salk (1914-1995), founder of the visiting nurse service Lillian Wald (1867-1940), Supreme Court Justices Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) and Benjamin Cardozo (1870-1938), Labor Union pioneers Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) and Sidney Hillman (1887-1946), public servant Herbert Lehman (1878-1963), and the eloquent humanist Elie Wiesel (born 1928). The rotating gallery features stars of the entertainment world: composers Irving Berlin (1888-1989) and George Gershwin (1898-1937), musical virtuosos Benny Goodman (1909-1986) and Isaac Stern (1920-2001), maestro Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), performers Milton Berle and Barbra Streisand (born 1942), and playwright Arthur Miller (1915-2005). The Impact of Jewish Intellect display will culminate with the 2010 Jewish-American Hall of Fame honoree Barney Ross (1909-1967), three-time boxing champion and heroic silver star recipient.

The series of plaques composing the permanent exhibit, “The Impact of Jewish Intellect on America and the World” will stand in stark juxtaposition to another new exhibit the Museum will also dedicate on May 16th. Entitled “Those People” and created by California-based artist Esther Glina Montagner, the exhibit consists of suitcases bearing the name of a family member who disappeared in the “night and fog” of the Holocaust. This moving artistic statement truly begs the question of What If…. What if Montagner’s family and countless others had been permitted to find refuge in America? How might the world have been different?

The public is invited to the opening day festivities beginning at 2:00 PM on Sunday, May 16th at the Virginia Holocaust Museum, 2000 East Carry Street, Richmond, VA 23223. Speakers will include Jay Ipson, Founder and Executive Director of Virginia Holocaust Museum; Dr. Simon P. Sibelman, Assistant Executive Director of the Museum; and Mel Wacks, Founder and Director of The Jewish-American Hall of Fame. The Museum’s regular hours are 9-5 Monday-Friday, and 11-5 Saturday-Sunday; admission is free. For further information visit www.va-holocaust.com or www.amuseum.org/jahf.

Contact:
Mel Wacks
The Jewish-American Hall of Fame
Richmond, VA
United States of America
818-225-1348
directorjahf@yahoo.com
http://www.amuseum.org/jahf