Congratulations to Capital Jewish Museum on Groundbreaking Festival

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, RRCHNM has been collaborating with a series of partners on its Pandemic Religion and American Jewish Life project. We have been very fortunate to have had the chance to work with these partners to collect and preserve sources about the impact the pandemic is having on American religion.

One of our partners—and neighbors—is the Capital Jewish Museum, which has also accepted a GMU student as an intern. But the Capital Jewish Museum is not even officially open yet! The work they are doing is all the more remarkable, then, and we are all the more pleased to share this announcement of their groundbreaking festival, coming up on September 12 to September 18.

These are no ordinary times. And this is no ordinary event! Be a part of an interactive, multi-day virtual festival to celebrate the Capital Jewish Museum breaking ground on what will become our permanent home at 3rd and F Streets, NW in Downtown Washington, DC. Experience a variety of free virtual events celebrating the new museum and its exploration of the intersection of American Judaism and American democracy. As the centerpiece of the festival, we will livestream the historic groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the future museum, marking the official start of transforming the space into our permanent home.

The festival will feature something for everyone, from online interactive conversations with top chefs, historians, and musicians, to family programming, a film screening, virtual photobooth, trivia and so much more! Explore the full schedule and register now!

The festival will include a film screening, a Rosh Hashanah concert, a panel on the first LGBTQ synagogue in DC, a food festival, a professional development session for teachers, a session on Jewish refugee scholars at HBCUs, a session on museums as agents of change, a scavenger hunt, and at the center the livestreamed groundbreaking ceremony itself. In addition to registering for these events, be sure to take a look at the plans for the museum and how it incorporates a historic Washington, DC, synagogue.

RRCHNM is thankful to have had the chance to partner with the museum since its outset, and we offer warm wishes and hearty congratulations for the groundbreaking of the Capital Jewish Museum!