Building Description
Jewish Museum Milwaukee is housed within the Edward Durell Stone-designed Helfaer Community Service Building, a simple, balanced, cream-colored brick building constructed 50 years ago in 1973. The Museum was developed in 2008 after a renovation by Kahler-Slater. The building also houses the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, the Holocaust Education Resource Center, and many more Jewish organizations. The second and third floors of the Helfaer Community Service Building are inaccessible during Doors Open.
To the north of the building, visitors will see a memorial to the Holocaust designed by Milwaukee-born artist, Claire Lieberman. The corten steel sheets give a book-like effect, symbolic of the Jewish identity as “people of the book.”
Visitor Experience
Highlights of the Jewish Museum Milwaukee’s permanent exhibit include stories of Jewish immigration into Milwaukee, Golda Meir’s childhood within the city and her return during a world tour in 1969, the Settlement Cookbook and the ‘her-story’ of Lizzie Black Kander, and the wall-sized tapestry created by renowned artist Marc Chagall called “The Prophet Jeremiah,” which was made especially for this building.
View the brand new special exhibit ‘Against the Grain: The Remarkable Life of Artist Bernard Perlin.’ Bernard Perlin was a minority, outsider, gay man, and pursuer of truth, beauty, and justice. This exhibit celebrates and brings deserved visibility to an individual who lived passionately and unapologetically against the grain. Born to Russian Jewish immigrants in 1918, artist-activist Perlin was a talented painter, illustrator, war artist-correspondent, and photographer, who tackled stylistic genres, the horrors of WWII, issues of social justice, and homosexuality with conviction and bravery.
Showcasing art from Perlin’s estate, this is an originally curated exhibit by Jewish Museum Milwaukee.
Address
1360 N Prospect Ave
Saturday Hours
Not Open
Sunday Hours
10 am - 4 pm
Photography
Photography allowed, Videography allowed
Handicapped Accessible
Fully wheelchair accessible
