Program areas at The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage
Core Collection - The Museum features two core exhibitions. An American Story chronicles the immigrant experience, development of Cleveland, Civil Rights Movement, and the Holocaust. The Temple-Tifereth Israel Gallery displays the nationally renowned collection of Judaica from its namesake synagogue. Tours of the collections include the topics of immigration and assimilation, the Holocaust and Civil Rights Movement, Cleveland history, and Jewish faith and traditions. Students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District also receive free admission, ensuring that cost is never a barrier to experiencing the Museum. As part of its core collection, The Maltz Museum is now home to two interactive biographies, of a Holocaust survivor and of a civil rights activist. Through advanced filming techniques, specialized display technologies, and natural language processing, the experiences of these two upstanders against hate have been preserved in a format that allows audiences to interact with their images as if they were actually present in the same room. For years to come, visitors will see these upstanders in high-definition, hear their voices, absorb their eyewitness accounts of history in the making, and draw inspiration from their courage and commitment to nonviolent change.
Stop the Hate - The Museum's anti-bias education program gives students in grades 6-12 the ability to process acts of hate and discrimination that they've experienced and a positive outlet for responding in healthy ways to change the culture around them in their schools and communities. This is not an abstract hope but a reality that has played out in-for example-the school of this year's grand prize winner of the essay contest wrote about a coach who subjected the entire girls' volleyball program to body shaming, and about how she worked successfully to have the coach removed. Other winning essays explored hate expressed on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender and sexuality, and physical or cognitive ability. The Stop the Hate program teaches students to recognize hate, helps them process and express their response to hate, and amplifies their messages encouraging a better way of living as an inclusive community.
Special Exhibitions - The Museum has presented 36 special exhibitions, including 3 in fiscal year 2022, the content of which has varied from comic superheroes to an examination of the life and times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The current special exhibition is This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement.