New York City’s Museo del Barrio joins the Museum of Jewish Heritage in presenting a free hands-on Family Workshop – Exploring Identity, Immigration, and Memory through Art and Culture of the Dominican Republic at the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. This program is presented in conjunction with the special bilingual exhibition opening February 17, Sosua: A Refuge for Jews in the Dominican Republic (Sosua: Un Refugio de Judios en la Republica Dominicana).
The drop-in sessions, created by the educators at El Museo del Barrio in cooperation with the Education Department at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, will take place all week during school vacation, Monday, February 18 through Friday, February 22. Children and their families will learn about art and culture of the Dominican Republic as they investigate identity, immigration and memory. During art-based activities and talks with El Museo del Barrio’s artist educators, families will create a memory box incorporating portraiture, writing, and collage.
The exhibition on Sosua: A Refuge for Jews in the DR shares the story of how in 1938, a time when openings for Jewish refugees were hard to find, the government of the Dominican Republic offered to resettle up to 100,000 Jews. Sosua, an abandoned banana plantation on the north coast of the island, became a refuge for hundreds of Jews. The settlers were given resources to cultivate the land they were provided, and built a thriving town – one that still exists today. This exhibition tells how the settlers were recruited and came to Sosua, what awaited them there, what role the Dominican and US governments and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee played in the story, how the settlers worked with their Dominican neighbors to establish themselves, and what kind of a town they created. Sosua speaks poignantly to one chapter in a shared Dominican and Jewish story. For more information visit www.mjhnyc.org