National Museum of American Jewish History tells 'story of America through Jewish eyes'

In the 1960s, a popular national ad campaign showed miscellaneous people - a wizened American Indian, a Chinese elder, Buster Keaton, an Irish cop, an angel-faced African American boy - biting into a luscious deli sandwich, with the caption: "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's real Jewish rye."

The gist of that message - that the integration of Jews in America has helped shape the culture - is a founding principle of the new National Museum of American Jewish History. The museum, says George Ross, cochair of its board of trustees, is the first to explore how Jews have changed and been changed, given this country's unique opportunities and freedoms.

For 34 years a small collection in nearby Congregation Mikveh Israel, the museum occupies a sparkling new 100,000-square-foot building on Independence Mall, designed by James Polshek, architect of the Newseum and the Clinton Presidential Center.

Though not open to the public until Nov. 26, it is celebrating this weekend with a star-studded, headline-grabbing series of events featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bette Midler, and boasting a guest list that ranges from Sidney Kimmel, Jeffrey Lurie, and Gov. Rendell to Vice President Biden, Rep. Bob Brady, and TV anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah.

That the latter three are not Jewish is precisely the point: The museum is as expansive in heart as it is sprawling in square footage. As Michael Rosenzweig, its president, said: "We're a Jewish institution, but not a religious institution."

After all, the curators attempt to cover only 350 years of a people whose history dates back several millennia. Despite the persistence of anti-Semitism, both covert and overt, the story of Jews in America is the story of a remarkable assimilation.

The five-story building includes fifth-floor event space, a basement auditorium and education center, and 25,000 square feet of gallery space containing more than 50 exhibits. They deal with immigration and industrialization, tenements and civil rights, anti-Semitism, Hollywood, high society, the borscht belt, Broadway, suburbia, and summer camp. They illuminate acts of courage and cowardice, prejudice and religious chauvinism. The museum lauds the contributions Jews have made to literature, science, comedy, and cuisine, and yet manages to make visitors - no matter what their religious backgrounds or beliefs - feel part of the extended family.