L ifestyle /C ulture
Museum Exhibit a Mosaic of Jewish History
ARTS JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
HISTORY IS OFTEN framed
as the story of major people and
events. But if you have enough
artifacts, it also can be presented
as a mosaic of everyday
experiences. Reform
Congregation Keneseth Israel’s Temple Judea
Museum has the artifacts, and
now through the end of March it
will use them to portray Jewish
history as that mosaic.

The museum, which is
named for the other Elkins Park
synagogue that KI merged with
in 1982, often showcases exhibits
about specific themes. Its most
recent show, in the fall, focused on
Jewish summer camps, according
to museum director Rita Poley.

But this exhibit, called
“Signs of Our Jewish Times,” is
a collection of objects that, as
Poley explained, do not fit into a
narrow theme.

There are pins from Jewish
events, the Israeli Army and
the Women’s League for
Conservative Judaism, among
others; there are signs and
pictures from Hesch’s, the old
Jewish steakhouse owned by
Philadelphia entrepreneur
Harry Jay Katz; there’s an old
sign from Satmar Bakery in New
York telling customers that the
bakery had no matzah left.

And that’s only a sampling.

“All these things that made
up Jewish life,” said Poley, who
has run the museum since 1999.

Poley, now in her late 70s,
spent her career as an art
consultant and museum curator
throughout the region. She
organized shows at synagogues,
schools and even the Philadelphia
Museum of Art. She also wrote a
column about exhibitions for the
Jewish Exponent.

Now retired, Poley remains
a KI member and the driving
force behind its Jewish history
museum. Though Poley runs
the operation, her shows are
often the products of generous
14 FEBRUARY 3, 2022
The Temple Judea Museum at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in
Elkins Park
Courtesy of Rita Poley
donations of entire collections,
like the Jewish summer camp
contribution. But the “Signs of Our Jewish
Times” show is different. This one
is about Poley coalescing a bunch
of old gems into an exhibit.

A few years ago, Ellen
Tilman, an Elkins Park resident
who served as KI’s director of
library services for 13 years, gave
Poley her collection of pins from
Women’s League events and
activities. Then, about a year ago, Al
Gilens, a Gladwyne resident
and a friend of Poley’s, donated
his pins from a career in Jewish
fundraising. One was from the
annual charity walk that the
Jewish Community Relations
Council used to hold.

At that point, Poley came up
with an idea.

“How can we exhibit those
pins?” she recalled.

The curator knew she already
had a lot of signs in the museum’s
collection, too. She realized that
the pins and signs together could
make for an interesting show.

And then about four months
ago, Katz’s estate donated
the artifacts from Hesch’s
Steakhouse. They included a
picture of Katz with Sylvester
Stallone holding a Hesch’s
menu, as well as a poster of Liza
Minnelli against a ticket for a
fundraiser at the steakhouse.

“That’s how this collection
came together,” Poley said.

Those were the major contri-
butions, but others were just
items Poley gathered herself over
the years.

She has a campaign
poster for former New York
Congresswoman Bella Abzug,
a Jewish leader in the feminist
movement elected to Congress
in 1970. The curator bought the
poster on eBay for a few bucks.

“One of the first feminist
officeholders. She was a real
character. So famous in the 1970s
and 1980s,” Poley said of Abzug.

“When I take it out, people don’t
even know who she is.”
Also on eBay for a few bucks,
the director bought a corned beef
sandwich bag from Bernstein’s
Restaurant on the Lower East
Side. And, after connecting with
an art dealer, she procured an
advertisement sign from the
JEWISH EXPONENT
A poster of actress and singer Liza Minnelli from an event at Hesch’s
Steakhouse in Philadelphia
Courtesy of Rita Poley
first Jewish airport, Palestine
Airways, in pre-state Israel.

“I look and see if I can find
little treasures and find ways to
use them,” Poley said.

The way Poley sees it, if she
doesn’t preserve the artifacts,
people will forget. They forget
anyway, she said.

But the “Signs of Our Times”
exhibit is a way to remind them.

Tilman, who contributed the
Women’s League pins, said you
don’t want to miss it because
you’re unlikely to see anything
like it again.

“It’s a collection of things that
would never otherwise be put
together,” she said.

Gilens, who contributed the
pins from his fundraising events,
believes that no two people will
walk through the exhibit and have
the same favorite image or display.

“It should create a lot of
conversation,” he said.

Admission to the show is
free, Poley said. The museum is
“generally open business hours
and Sunday mornings,” a release
said. But people who want to
attend are encouraged to contact
the synagogue in advance at
TJMuseum@kenesethisrael.org or 215-887-8700. l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM