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The untold story of the founding father’s likely Jewish birth and upbringing―and its revolutionary consequences for understanding him and the nation he fought to create

In "The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton," Andrew Porwancher debunks a string of myths about the origins of this founding father to arrive at a startling conclusion: Hamilton, in all likelihood, was born and raised Jewish. For more than two centuries, his youth in the Caribbean has remained shrouded in mystery. Hamilton himself wanted it that way, and most biographers have simply assumed he had a Christian boyhood. With a detective’s persistence and a historian’s rigor, Porwancher upends that assumption and revolutionizes our understanding of an American icon. Join author Andrew Porwancher for an exploration of how this fascinating book challenges us to rethink the life and legend of America's most enigmatic founder.

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Museum and historical sites are central in Clint Smith's exploration of the history of slavery in America. He described the work of the professionals and volunteers he met: "They are people who have tasked themselves with telling the story of that place outside traditional classrooms and beyond the pages of a textbooks. They are, formally or informally, public historians who carry with them a piece of this country's collective memory. They have dedicated their lives to sharing this history with others." Learn about how museums are central to creating and debunking narratives through this beautifully written book.

Author Clint Smith discusses his debut work of nonfiction "How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America," a revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a slave-owning nation. Smith will be in conversation with Reggie Jackson of Nurturing Diversity Partners, a Milwaukee-based organization that provides education, training, and consulting services to foster diversity, inclusion, and equity within institutions and communities.

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David Zucker, director of such classic off-the-wall comedies like Airplane!, The Naked Guns, and Scary Movies, discusses his recently published book, "Before the Invention of Smiling," described as part family history, part scrapbook, part autobiography and part Zucker’s “rantings.”

From as early as he could remember, growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1950s, David would listen as his grandmother, Sarah Zucker, would tell tales of her upbringing in a tiny village in turn-of-the-century Hungary. He was fascinated hearing of her escape overnight across the border, and journey to America. After moving to Los Angeles to establish his film career, David returned to Milwaukee for a weekend in 1976 to sit down with his grandmother, then 86, to record the whole story. It wasn’t until twenty years later, during post-production of Scary Movie 3, when he happened to review the transcript, that he was struck with the extent to which his own family’s journey had shaped who he was and influenced the career he had embarked on.

Like everything David Zucker does, Before the Invention of Smiling, throws out any previous notions and does not follow a traditional book format, resulting in a unique and original creation that combines Sarah’s story with accompanying family and contemporary period photographs. The book also features illustrations by award-winning artists Cynthia Angulo and Gary Thomas to complete the visualization of the family’s history. David’s original notion of attributing special value to “photolooms,” (objects appearing in old photographs) and incisive commentary by other family members add a colorful dimension to the storytelling. Of course, the author doesn’t hold back his often outrageous and unorthodox views on architecture, history, decorating, genealogy, and of course, a generous dose of Zucker humor!

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Something unique emerged in the heart of Berlin in the nineteenth century: a creative center for fashion and ready-made clothing. The hundreds of clothing companies that were established here manufactured modern clothing and developed new designs that were sold throughout Germany and the world.

This industry reached the height of its success in the 1920s. Freed from their corsets, sophisticated women of the time dressed in the “Berlin chic” sold by Valentin Manheimer, Herrmann Gerson, or the Wertheim department stores.

After 1933, however, most Jewish clothing industrialists were confronted with hatred and violence. Many of their companies were “Aryanized” while they themselves were robbed, displaced, and murdered. Under new Aryan management, these companies created conservative clothing that represented an entirely different image of women.

Join the author of Fashion Metropolis Berlin, Uwe Westphal, as he brings to life Berlin’s fashionable past describing the rise and destruction of the Jewish fashion industry from 1836 – 1939.

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In September 1941, a handful of isolationist senators set out to tarnish Hollywood for warmongering. The United States was largely divided on the possibility of entering the European War, yet the immigrant moguls in Hollywood were acutely aware of the conditions in Europe. After Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass), the gloves came off. Warner Bros. released the first directly anti-Nazi film in 1939 with Confessions of a Nazi Spy. Other studios followed with such films as The Mortal Storm (MGM), Man Hunt (Fox), The Man I Married (Fox), and The Great Dictator (United Artists).

While these films represented a small percentage of Hollywood's output, senators took aim at the Jews in Hollywood who were supposedly “agitating us for war” and launched an investigation that resulted in Senate Resolution 152. The resolution was aimed at both radio and movies that "have been extensively used for propaganda purposes designed to influence the public mind in the direction of participation in the European War.” When the Senate approved a subcommittee to investigate the intentions of these films, studio bosses were ready and willing to stand up against the government to defend their beloved industry. What followed was a complete embarrassment of the United States Senate and a large victory for Hollywood as well as freedom of speech.

Author of 'Hollywood Hates Hitler! Jew-Baiting, Anti-Nazism, and the Senate Investigation into Warmongering in Motion Pictures,' Chris Yogerst examines the years leading up to and through the Senate Investigation into Motion Picture War Propaganda, detailing the isolationist senators’ relationship with the America First movement.

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'Franci's War: A Woman's Story of Survival' is an engrossing memoir of a spirited and glamorous young fashion designer who survived World War ll, presented by her daughter, Helen Epstein.

In the summer of 1942, twenty-two year-old Franci Rabinek–designated a Jew by the Nazi racial laws–arrived at Terezin, a concentration camp and ghetto forty miles north of her home in Prague. It would be the beginning of her three-year journey from Terezin to the Czech family camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, to the slave labor camps in Hamburg, and Bergen Belsen. After liberation by the British in April 1945, she finally returned to Prague.

Franci was known in her group as the Prague dress designer who lied to Dr. Mengele at an Auschwitz selection, saying she was an electrician, an occupation that both endangered and saved her life. In this memoir, she offers her intense, candid, and sometimes funny account of those dark years, with the women prisoners in her tight-knit circle of friends.

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Helen Epstein (helenepstein.com) is a veteran journalist and author who has published ten books of non-fiction, including the trilogy Children of the Holocaust, Where She Came From, and The Long Half-Lives of Love and Trauma. Her annotated edition of her mother’s memoir Franci’s War has been published in nine countries. She lives in Massachusetts.

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Award-winning journalist Libby Copeland will discuss her new book, The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are. In this book, Copeland investigates what happens when we embark on a vast social experiment with little understanding of the ramifications. She explores the culture of genealogy buffs, the science of DNA, and the business of companies like Ancestry and 23andMe, all while tracing the story of one woman, her unusual results, and a relentless methodical drive for answers that becomes a thoroughly modern genetic detective story.

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New York Times bestselling author Larry Tye discusses his new book, 'Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy.' Tye got first-ever and exclusive access to the senator’s personal and professional papers, which were under lock-and-key at Marquette for 60 years, along with his medical and military records. These new records give a more nuanced sense of who the Red-baiting senator was, why Wisconsin elected and re-elected, and how McCarthy and McCarthyism matter more now than ever.

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Three years ago, neo-Nazis and white supremacists descended on Charlottesville, VA for a weekend of violence. This violence was no accident — rather, it was the result of months of planning. And it served as a harbinger of the cycle of extremist terror that has followed.

Integrity First for America (IFA), in partnership with a world-class legal team, is uniquely taking on the neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and hate groups at the center of this violent movement, holding them accountable in federal court for the violence they brought to Charlottesville in 2017.

IFA’s lawsuit details how these extremists conspired online to orchestrate a weekend of violence, which resulted in Heather Heyer’s death and extensive injuries. It provides a tangible way to take action against the white supremacy and extremism that’s poisoning this country and has the potential to bankrupt and dismantle the leaders and hate groups at the center of this movement — which is key, given their disturbing connections to the broader cycle of violence.

Taking on, and taking down, these violent extremists is all the more critical as we see them try to exploit recent protests to spread disinformation, hate, fear, and violence.

Join IFA Executive Director Amy Spitalnick, attorney Michael Bloch, and Reggie Jackson, co-founder of Nurturing Diversity Partners, for an overview of this landmark case and the broader fight against white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racism, and other forms of hate. The panel will be moderated by Hannah Rosenthal, former Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, U.S. State Department; former President and CEO, Milwaukee Jewish Federation.

The program will begin with a screening of the short film, ‘Reawakening’, by Alexandra Horowitz in which rabbis and members of Charlottesville’s only synagogue voice responses to the 2017 Unite the Right rallies and discuss how the anti-Semitism they experienced transformed their community, including how it led them to become more involved in social justice, and the DC-based independent filmmaker’s comments about the project.

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Redlining is the practice of denying services, either directly or through selectively raising prices, to residents of certain areas based on the racial or ethnic composition of those areas, and was the impetus for the Milwaukee Open Housing Marches in 1967-68.

Learn the history of Redlining in Milwaukee as well as the role and impact of racially restrictive covenants during the 1960s. Reggie Jackson, prominent local historian, educator and head Griot at America’s Black Holocaust Museum, will also discuss the D-5 sector considered a “negro slum” and area for “lesser” Jews.

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Examine relevant texts, look into the root causes of the problems that are defining our era and consider the myriad ways in which we can and must be involved as individuals and as Jews in the ongoing struggles for justice and equity at home and abroad. Bringing to bear her own experience as an organizer, a social change agent, a former elected official and the past leader of a Jewish organization committed to global human rights, Ruth Messinger, considers with the audience what we can do and what next steps we can take.

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The performance was part of the Opening Preview of Pictures of Resistance: The Wartime Photographs of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman, an exhibit on display at Jewish Museum Milwaukee March 29 - May 26, 2019. Performers from left to right: Mathilde Prosen-Oldani, Selma Rivera and Chantae Miller.

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While many people associate the phrase “scrap yard” with scrap metal, the scope of scrap dealing in Wisconsin is far more diverse. In addition to dealing with scrap iron and nonferrous metals, Wisconsin scrap dealers have dealt in scrap paper and rags, hides and bones from slaughterhouses, and army surplus.

Like their counterparts in other states, Wisconsin scrap dealers have sought opportunities where other people saw materials to discard. Jonathan Pollack, Honorary Fellow of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies and Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, traces the evolution of scrap dealing in Wisconsin and tracks the parallel evolution of the Wisconsin economy.

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From the silent-film era onward, scrap dealers have shown up in films and TV shows like Born Yesterday, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Sanford and Son, and the DC Comics character “Ragman.” While the earliest depictions of scrap dealers often relied on antisemitic stereotypes, later portrayals revealed more complex characters, sometimes realistic and sometimes fantastic.

Join Jonathan Pollack, Honorary Fellow of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies and Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to find out if all scrap dealers in popular culture were Jewish, why they are laden with stereotypes, and how to understand these portrayals in a more dynamic way.

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Adam Minter, author of books on recycling and secondhand stuff, is the world's best-selling chronicler of the global scrap industry. Join him as he journeys from the small family scrap yard in which he grew up, to massive recycling operations around the globe. Along the way, he'll show why scrap is global, its true impact on the environment, and why scrapping is still one of the best ways for an ambitious immigrant (like his great-grandfather) to make a living.

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Phil Hands, editorial cartoonist for the Wisconsin State Journal discusses political cartooning and how Erich Lichtblau-Leskly's drawings fit into the field. Hands demonstrates how he draws easily identifiable political figures and crafts well-chosen text to create deeper meaning for the reader.

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Simone Schweber, Goodman Chair of Education and Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, facilitates an interactive workshop combining pair-and-share, small-group work and lecture to figure out how to talk to young kids about the Holocaust and other difficult topics. This workshop is designed to make sure that, as parents or educators of young children, we’re balancing the competing pressures of protecting our little ones’ idealism with being truthful about historical harms. In these tough times, learn how to approach your child with age-appropriate information, address the tough questions, and shut down conversations you feel your child is not yet ready to hear or may not be worth opening up in the midst of a global pandemic.

Sponsored by Sharon and Richard Canter, Karen E & Leonard L Loeb Donor Advised Fund of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, and Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center; in partnership with Coalition for Jewish Learning, Milwaukee Jewish Day School and Milwaukee Public Library.

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Dr. Gregory Wegner, author of the book, “Anti-Semitism and Schooling under the Third Reich” explored Nazi propaganda and the role it played in the schools of the Third Reich. This event was co-sponsored by the Jewish Museum Milwaukee and the Nathan & Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center. Learn more at www.JewishMuseumMilwaukee.org and www.HolocaustCenterMilwaukee.org.

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"Stitching History From the Holocaust" Lecture by Dr. Michael Berenbaum at the exhibit opening in September 2014. Learn about the exhibit "Stitching History From the Holocaust": www.StitchingHistory.org

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Ellie Gettinger, JMM's Education Director, spoke at the opening of
"Stitching History From the Holocaust" in New York's Museum of
Jewish Heritage. Ellie shares her keynote presentation from the
New York opening at a Lunch & Learn program.

This program is being presented in connection with the exhibit, "Stitching History From the Holocaust." Learn about the exhibit: www.StitchingHistory.org

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Steve Solocheck Memorial Lecture Series Presents East Side, West Side: A Brief History of Milwaukee Neighborhoods with local historian and author John Gurda. The lecture took place July 19, 2017 at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee.

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Located next to Forest Home Cemetery, Greenwood Cemetery is one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the greater Milwaukee area, dating back to 1871. Greenwood began as a German Jewish cemetery and continued that trend for fifty years. By the mid-1920s other members of Milwaukee’s Jewish community chose to have their family burials at Greenwood. Greenwood Cemetery is the first Wisconsin cemetery to be an approved cemetery provider by The Green Burial Council.

Many well-known names associated with the development of Milwaukee’s Jewish community are buried here. Join docent Paul Haubrich for a virtual tour exploring the history of the cemetery, its architecture, and the lives of several individuals buried there. Paul is professor emeritus at UW-Milwaukee and a former chair of the Board of Directors for the Forest Home Historic Preservation Association. He has extensive knowledge of Milwaukee’s history and its founders.

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Bernice Steinhardt, President of Art and Remembrance and daughter of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, presented her mother's story during the Opening Preview of Fabric of Survival: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz. The exhibit is on view at Jewish Museum Milwaukee February 17 - May 26, 2017.

Esther was 15 when she defied Nazi orders, separating from her family as they and the other Jews of their Polish village reported to a nearby train station. Making her way to a village where she was unknown, Esther survived the war by posing as a Polish farm girl. She never saw her family again.

Forty years later, determined to show her daughters the family they had lost, Esther turned to needle and thread to create a series of 36 hauntingly beautiful, exquisitely detailed works of fabric collage and embroidery - a legacy born of love, loss, and a the sheer force of memory.

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Chagall's Le Cirque opened to a sold-out crowd and rave reviews Thursday, June 13, 2019. Attendees got a rare opportunity to experience Marc Chagall’s legendary Le Cirque portfolio through the eyes of his granddaughter, Bella Meyer, as well as the companion exhibit Wisconsin: Mother of Circuses and the Great Circus Parade.

Bella presented on the legendary Le Cirque portfolio while sharing memories and insights about growing up with her renowned grandfather, Marc Chagall. Bella shared how the circus became the heart of Chagall's personal mythology and a symbol of the human condition.

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This video is about Chasing Dreams. Bud Selig and Mark Attanasio address the exhibit. Commissioner Emeritus Selig tells amazing stories about his experiences both as owner of the Brewers and as Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
For more information, go to www.jewishmuseummilwaukee.org.

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The show featured an intentionally diverse cast, including Jewish actors Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner, Asian American actor George Takei, and Nichelle Nichols, who helped pave the way for Black actresses in Hollywood as the pioneering character Lt. Uhura.

Set in a future, utopian civilization in the Milky Way galaxy, TOS broke cultural and racial barriers, tackling social issues, and later iterations of Star Trek such as The Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine, continued to confront issues reflective of the societal time periods in which they were created, including gender, sexuality, religion, and modernity.

Join Hector Kilgoe, doctoral candidate in African American religious history at the University of Pennsylvania, in exploring this landmark franchise and its historical and contemporary relevance.

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When the Columbia Space Shuttle exploded on February 1, 2003, it took the lives of seven astronauts, including Israeli Ilan Ramon. Though badly damaged, one of Ramon’s prized possessions was recovered and restored: his astronaut crew notebook which served as his diary. Hear from world-renowned conservator Michael Maggen who was tasked with the mission to restore and decipher Ramon’s personal writings.

Program Sponsors:
Linda and Eli Frank
Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest

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Economically and politically battered, post-WWI Germany saw the rise of the Weimar Republic which exploded with avant-garde and modern creativity in visual arts, music, theater, cinema, as well as new scientific frontiers. Explore this burst of creativity against the rise of the Nazi party and why they found these modern movements profoundly threatening to their totalitarian regime. 

Featured as the Opening Preview of DEGENERATE! Hitler's War on Modern Art, on view at Jewish Museum Milwaukee February 24 - June 4, 2023.

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The experimental techniques and thought-provoking subjects characteristics of modern art were the focus of a propaganda campaign launched by the Nazis to convince the German public that modernist works and those that created them were representative of and responsible for moral decline, mental illness, and genetic inferiority. Explore some of the movements and artists deemed ‘degenerate’, and the impact of that label with Elana Shapira, Cultural and Design Historian/Lecturer, University of Vienna.

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