Dr. Bernard Heller Museum

About the Museum

The Heller Museum, located in New York City’s Greenwich Village at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, showcases the creativity of contemporary artists of all faiths who explore and comment on culture, history, and current social issues. The Museum features exhibitions and programs that interpret core Jewish values, texts, and beliefs and that foster a deeper public education regarding Jewish heritage. The Museum also offers traveling exhibitions and professional museum guidance to synagogues, museums, and other Jewish cultural venues throughout North America and it serves as a resource for graduate students and faculty.

Visit the Museum

Location

One West Fourth Street (between Broadway and Mercer Street), New York, NY 10012-1186

Hours

Monday-Thursday, 9 am – 6:30 pm

Admission Free

Current government issued photo ID required for security. Proof of vaccination required.

Tours/Contact

To schedule a docent-led group tour, join the museum email list, or learn more about the Museum, please contact us at hellermuseum@huc.edu or 212-824-2218.

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Subways

We are located on West Fourth Street, between Broadway and Mercer Street, three blocks east of Washington Square Park. R/W to 8th St./NYU; 6 to Astor Place; A/C/E/B/D/F/M to W. 4th St.

Current Exhibitions

sacred land cover
March 19, 2024 - July 8, 2024

Sacred Land

Photographer Ralph Gibson and producer Martin Cohen have conceived of a unique photographic exhibition and publication that capture the essence of Israel as a sacred land, both ancient and contemporary. Invited into the eye of the photographer, we see what he sees, what captures his attention -- the people, places, things, moments that express the humanity of each being in a place holy to all.

Painting
January 8 – May 23, 2024

The Haggadah: Old and New

Out of the Narrows, the haggadah produced in 2021 by the Jewish Artists Collective Chicago (JACC), is highlighted in this exhibition of contemporary art interpreting the text recited at the Passover seder (festive meal). Referencing the Hebrew word for Egypt, mitzrayim, which means “the narrow place,” Out of the Narrows was motivated by the artists’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, in full force during Passover 2020. Also included in this exhibition are several examples of 20th- and 21st-century American haggadot and Archie Rand’s paintings of Had Gadya, sung at the end of the seder.

Driedel Menorah Orange
Through July 8, 2024

Mark Podwal: Juxtapositions of Understanding

“Mark Podwal: Juxtapositions of Understanding,” presents 14 works by the noted artist, author, filmmaker, and physician Mark Podwal. Employing imagery inspired by Jewish history, traditions, legends, and mysticism in unexpected juxtapositions, Podwal reveals eternal values that have advanced Jewish identity and peoplehood across the millennia.

decorative
July 17, 2023 - July 8, 2024

Mildred Weissman: A Legacy of Art and Activism

Twelve fine art prints by leading 20th-century artists celebrate the aesthetic sensibility and verve of Mildred Weissman, distinguished art collector and beloved advisor and benefactor of the Heller Museum.

Arielle Stein Art
On View through July 8, 2024

Arielle Stein: Like a Rose Among Thorns

Integrating biblical text, commentary and visual exegesis, Like a Rose Among Thorns describes the exuberant, curious and lush world in which the Song of Song takes place. Like a Rose Among Thorns traces the song chapter by chapter, evoking key moments in the love story the text presents, offering viewers the opportunity to encounter expressions of the original text and related commentary while getting lost in the language of artist and rabbinical student Arielle Stein.

Current Exhibitions

sacred land cover
March 19, 2024 - July 8, 2024

Sacred Land

Photographer Ralph Gibson and producer Martin Cohen have conceived of a unique photographic exhibition and publication that capture the essence of Israel as a sacred land, both ancient and contemporary. Invited into the eye of the photographer, we see what he sees, what captures his attention -- the people, places, things, moments that express the humanity of each being in a place holy to all.

Traveling Exhibitions

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Frank Stella: Had Gadya

Inspired by El Lissitzky's 1919 illustrations of the Passover song "Had Gadya," Frank Stella embarked on a two-year process of creating the vivid abstractions of this print series using a combination of various printmaking techniques – lithography, linoleum block, silkscreen, and rubber relief with collage elements and hand-coloring.

One Nation

Contemporary artists illuminate the diverse and vibrant identities comprising American society and express their aspirations for equity, inclusion, and justice.

Tzedek Boxes: Justice Shall You Pursue

Contemporary artists offer their vision for the Tzedek box, a new Jewish ceremonial object for a new ritual aimed at encouraging us to answer the Jewish call for justice. When we complete a meaningful act of social justice, we write a diary entry about the experience and insert it into a Tzedek Box. This ritual regularly prompts us to reflect on what we have learned -- and what we still need to do -- as we seek to build a more just world. Once a year on Yom HaTzedek, we open the box and review its contents as a form of sacred accountability.

Holy Sparks: Celebrating 50 Years of Women in the Rabbinate

Illuminating the creativity, commitment, and vision of 24 women rabbis who were “firsts” in their time in portraits by 24 leading contemporary Jewish women artists.

stella artwork
Pomegranate Hanukkiah Oded Halahmy, 1997 Bronze and cast aluminum Collection of the Heller Museum, HUC-JIR/New York

From the Collection:
Oded Halahmy
Pomegranate Hanukkiah

1997, bronze and cast aluminum;
Collection of the Heller Museum, HUC-JIR/New York

Baghdad-born and Israel-bred sculptor Oded Halahmy recalls that he comes from the “land of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates.” His monumental Hanukkah lamp has pomegranate candleholders, expressing fertility and referencing the multi-seeded fruit that symbolizes the 613 mitzvot (commandments) central to Jewish life.

Bloomberg Connects flyer for Stella exhibit digital guide with QR code

The Heller Museum at Bloomberg Connects

The Heller Museum is proud to join over 100 international museums, galleries, sculpture parks, gardens, and cultural spaces on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app. Go behind the scenes with exclusive multimedia perspectives from artists, curators, and more. Enjoy guides to our exhibitions, traveling shows, and collections from wherever you are.

Museum Information


As a university/seminary museum, the Heller Museum’s mission is to:

  • Showcase the creativity of contemporary artists of all faiths. Exploring Jewish identity, history, culture, and current issues;
  • Feature exhibitions and programs that interpret core Jewish values, texts, and beliefs; foster a deeper public education regarding Jewish heritage; and advance multiethnic and interfaith understanding.
  • Enrich the academic and professional training of students and serve as a resource for faculty;
  • Offer traveling exhibitions and professional museum guidance to synagogues, museums, and other Jewish cultural venues throughout North America.

Since its founding in 1984 as the Joseph Gallery under the leadership of Reva Godlove Kirschberg, z”l, the museum expanded to become the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum and was dedicated as the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum on September 6, 2018 with a naming gift from the Dr. Bernard Heller Foundation. The Museum has mounted over 150 exhibitions at our New York campus including seminal shows for emerging artists; surveys of leading mid-career and elder artists; cutting-edge exhibitions illuminating Jewish issues, including contemporary artistic responses to the Holocaust, the history of African-American and Jewish relations, the impact of family violence reflected in the works of contemporary Israeli and American women artists, the sexuality spectrum, home and homelessness, and the current environmental crisis; landmark exhibitions establishing new directions for contemporary Jewish ceremonial art; group exhibitions reflecting new interpretations of Biblical text; and exhibitions of significant private collections, reflecting Jewish identity and consciousness, which have advanced the definition of Jewish art in the 20th century.

It has published scores of exhibition catalogs that are accessible online and preserved in major art museums and university libraries worldwide. The Museum has organized more than thirty traveling exhibitions that are presented in Jewish museums, university art galleries, synagogues, and community centers that reach communities throughout North America and beyond each year. The Museum has developed an art collection of over 2,500 works spanning the 20th and 21st centuries. Docents lead adult and school groups throughout the year, and an internship program mentors highly qualified high school, college, and graduate students. During the course of the past 38 years, the Museum has offered powerful learning experiences for over a million visitors to our museum and to our traveling exhibitions.

The Museum’s exhibitions and publications are supported by George Weissman, z”l, and Mildred Weissman, z”l,  and presented by the Irma L. and Abram S. Croll Center for Jewish Learning and Culture.

The Museum seeks to attract diverse visitors, including school and adult groups, Jewish lay and professional leaders, interseminary students, the arts community, and the general public, all of whom are welcome to participate in our tours.

This archive features exhibitions presented in recent years, many of which are currently traveling to other museum venues, which explore the creativity of contemporary artists of all faiths exploring Jewish identity, history, culture, and experience; interpret core Jewish values, texts, and beliefs and that foster a deeper appreciation for Jewish heritage; provide a forum for the exploration of the role of the arts as an expression of Jewish spirituality; highlight the creativity of contemporary Israeli artists and strengthen cultural ties between North America and Israel; showcase treasures of the College-Institute’s library, archives, and museum collections; and celebrate the important role played by collectors in the development of Jewish art and museums.

The Heller Museum offers over 20 traveling exhibitions, originally presented at our Museum or curated on specific themes from our permanent collection, which feature contemporary and 20th-century artists and include 30 to 50 works of various sizes, wall texts, and labels.

Loans for these traveling exhibitions are contracted with a $600 registrar’s fee and require that the borrowing venue cover the costs of round-trip shipping and insurance, and acknowledge in all digital, print, and publicity materials that the exhibition comes from the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.

Please contact Nancy Mantell, Curator for Traveling Exhibitions, at 212-824-2218 or nmantell@huc.edu

Guiding the Heller Museum are:

  • Director Jean Bloch Rosensaft
  • Curator Emerita Laura Kruger
  • Curator Nancy H. Mantell, Ph.D.
  • Curator Phyllis Freedman
  • Assistant Curator Susan H. Picker, Ph.D.
  • Archivist Susan Rosenstein
  • Research Director Rose Starr, MSW
  • Museum Communications Coordinator Eleanor Berman
  • Ellen Rosenbush, Curatorial Assistant

The Museum has developed an art collection of over 2,500 works spanning the 20th and 21st centuries, much of which is exhibited throughout the public spaces of HUC-JIR’s New York campus and integrated into temporary thematic exhibitions.

Dr. Bernard Heller Museum internships offer extensive hands-on experience working closely with curators, educators, and communications staff. Museum Interns will have the opportunity to develop skills and acquire significant museum experience, including:

  • Interaction with contemporary artists
  • Fine arts research
  • Exhibition catalog production
  • Object registration
  • Marketing and public relations
  • Educational programming

Details:

  • Semester and summer internships
  • Flexible hours
  • May qualify for academic credit

To apply: Please send a resume and cover letter to hellermuseum@huc.edu

Heller Museum Publications

Holy Sparks

Holy Sparks

On June 3, 1972, Jewish and American history were made when Rabbi Sally Priesand was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion as the first woman rabbi in America.

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One Nation: Contemporary Artists Consider America, Past, Present, and Future

One Nation: Contemporary Artists Consider America, Past, Present, and Future

ONE NATION presents a provocative view of America, past, present, and future, as interpreted by 40 contemporary artists who consider the state of our nation and hopes for a just future.

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“Tzedek Boxes: Justice Shall You Pursue”: Artists Imagine A New Jewish Tradition

“Tzedek Boxes: Justice Shall You Pursue”: Artists Imagine A New Jewish Tradition

The Tzedek Box, a new ritual object for gathering reflections about our efforts to improve the world, is the inspiration for 29 highly original works by contemporary artists

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Street Visions: Europe 1934, Photographs by Richard J. Scheuer

Street Visions: Europe 1934, Photographs by Richard J. Scheuer

A remarkable window into Europe before World War II will be seen by the public for the first time when Street Visions: Europe, 1934 — Photographs by Richard J. Scheuer goes on display.

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Magical Thinking: Superstitions and Other Persistent Notions

Magical Thinking: Superstitions and Other Persistent Notions

Superstitions, believed to bring good or bad fortune, are the inspiration for the provocative new art exhibit, Magical Thinking: Superstitions and Other Persistent Notions

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Illustrations for the Bronfman Haggadah

Illustrations for the Bronfman Haggadah

A revolutionary Haggadah for the 21st century, The Bronfman Haggadah is a provocative and stunningly visual reinterpretation of the Passover story.

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Elements of Alchemy

Elements of Alchemy

Paul Weissman employs multi-layered printmaking techniques that incorporate eponymous elements and metaphorical imagery to examine man’s relationship to basic building blocks of the universe.

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The L.A. Story

The L.A. Story

This exhibition, a selection of work from ten contemporary Los Angeles Jewish artists, investigates the impact of place and the search for artistic community on the creativity of artists who share a religious, cultural and spiritual heritage.

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The Eye of the Collector: The Jewish Vision of Sigmund R. Balka

The Eye of the Collector: The Jewish Vision of Sigmund R. Balka

Sigmund R. Balka has gifted the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion with an encyclopedic survey of the major European and American Jewish artists and themes in Jewish art during the 19th and 20th century.

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