1917: Gateway to the 20th Century

FAIN: GI-250159-16

National Museum of American Jewish History (Philadelphia, PA 19106-2517)
Josh Perelman (Project Director: January 2016 to June 2018)

Implementation of a traveling exhibition and a virtual tour exploring how geopolitical events of 1917 fundamentally changed American Jewish identity.

The National Museum of American Jewish History, in collaboration with the American Jewish Historical Society, requests an implementation grant to support the development of the special exhibition, 1917: Gateway to the 20th Century (working title), to be presented in Philadelphia and New York in 2017, and travel to additional venues. This exhibition will focus on America’s entry into World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Balfour Declaration, in which Great Britain indicated support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and illustrate how these events impacted ethnic minority communities, especially American Jews. The exhibition will encourage visitors to consider the reverberations of these events on contemporary American perceptions of national identity and citizenship, America’s geopolitical role, and our relationship to Europe and the Middle East.