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



L ifestyle /C ulture
Philly Faces: Amanda Shulman
P H I LLY FACES
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
night while she was in high
school. Her epicurious skills honed
through spells as a chef at Amis
Trattoria — once part of the
Marc Vetri restaurant empire
— and The Bakeshop on 20th,
Shulman grew her desire to
feed others.

The prototype of a full
dining room on Shabbat
evolved into a supper club she
hosted in her tiny University of
Pennsylvania apartment, then
a pop-up concept and now
the semi-permanent Her Place
supper club with its home at
1740 Sansom St.

family making that really
stuck with you?
Every Friday night we would
make roast chicken — roast
chicken with vegetables.

It was also all about the
holidays: my great aunt’s
stuffed Cornish hens — like the
craziest thing ever. I remember
eating them once a year at her
house for Rosh Hashanah with
apple cake.

What else? And my grand-
ma’s baked salami — kosher
baked salami covered in
sugar-mustard glaze.

AMANDA SHULMAN, 29,
grew up eating Shabbat dinner
with her family almost every
week. It was such a sacred time
that her parents imposed a
rule: no going out with friends
on Friday nights. Instead, as
a loophole, Shulman and her
siblings would invite friends
over to their “revolving dinner
table.” Learning to cook Shabbat
meals with her grandmothers
Have you found that the way
in the kitchen, Shulman
you ate growing up has influ-
quickly fell in love with feeding
enced how you cook?
others, and she began cooking Was there a dish growing
up that
you remember
your Definitely.

It’s abundant,
dinner for her family every
Amanda Shulman
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Courtesy of Amanda Shulman
JEWISH EXPONENT
and it should make you
feel good, and [it’s] not too
complicated. I’m one of four kids;
everyone besides me had a
picky-eater phase. So my mom
would have to make three
different things, and there was
always just so much concern
that there was never going to
be enough, so that’s definitely
something I have taken.

I really love spreads and
a lot of things on the table
at once, just to give everyone
some options.

Cooking with your family
growing up, cooking in restau-
rants under chef mentors,
what are some lessons you’ve
learned? Work ethic is inherent not
necessarily learned, but just
how to put your head down
and learn and just listen, really
how to listen. How to soak up
everything you can from an
opportunity. Recognizing you can liter-
ally learn from every single
person, whether ... it’s a sous
chef, whether it’s a dishwasher
... you can learn from every-
body. You just have to be like
a sponge.

It’s also a relationship
business. So don’t burn a bridge
and be respectful. Just know
that everyone is connected.

That’s really important. And
just being nice, constantly. Just
being kind can go a long way,
especially in today’s kitchen
culture. expectation, really — in a good
way. Because how many restau-
rants have you been to where
there’s a set of rules: You go
in, you sit down, you order;
you act in a certain way? You
expect an appetizer, an entree,
a dessert and a side, and we are
just, like, ‘Nope, that’s not how
we play.’
By not calling ourselves
a restaurant, it gives us a lot
more freedom and flexibility to
bend the rules.

What are some ways in which
you bend the rules?
We’re open basically four
days a week maximum. We
don’t do dietary substitutions.

There’s plenty of food; if you
don’t like something, eat more
of something else, or come
another time.

The menu changes every
two weeks, but it really changes
like every day, based off of what
I can get or what I’m excited
about. A conversation I have
will literally change an entire
menu. We only release reserva-
tions every two weeks, and
it’s definitely crazy to say this,
but we basically run this entire
restaurant off of social media.

Who would your dream
dinner guest be?
My grandma passed away
two years ago. I wish she could
come. She’s probably my No. 1
person who I wish I could feed.

It’s not just being like a
dinner guest. I want to cook
for you ... but it’s just such
a different environment than
a regular restaurant. It’s kind
of like a dinner party. You’re
walked through your whole
meal, so you can’t just be a
food person, you have to be a
good time — are you adding to
the atmosphere? My grandma
checks all the boxes, so she’ll
be my answer. l
You are pretty adamant about
making a distinction between
a supper club and a restau-
rant. What are the differences
between those two concepts?
Honestly, the real truth is
by not saying I’m a restaurant,
I have a lot more flexibility. By
not defining myself as really
anything, I can kind of change
the rules.

It gives the customer a srogelberg@jewishexponent.com;
different expectation — or no 215-832-0741
FEBRUARY 3, 2022
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