22 | DECEMBER 21 • 2023 J
N

I

n April 2024, JHSM 
(Jewish Historical Society 
of Michigan) will open its 
highly anticipated exhibit at the 
Detroit Historical Museum: 
In the Neighborhood: Everyday 
Life on Hastings Street. From 
the 1880 to the 1920s, Hastings 
Street was home to most of the 
city’s Jewish residents, including 
tens of thousands of Eastern-
European immigrants.
Running April 20 to July 14, 
2024, the exhibit highlights 
their struggles and triumphs 
and their wide-ranging impacts 
on the city, from linguistic and 
cultural, to civic and social. It 
concludes with a collaboration 
with African American 
historians and archivists 

(including Detroit’s official 
historian, Jamon Jordan) to 
showcase the neighborhood’s 
later history as a dynamic Black 
enclave (Black Bottom), inviting 
viewers to connect Hastings 
Street’s past, present and future. 
The Detroit Historical Museum 
projects 30,000 people will see 
the exhibit.
Funded in part by Michigan 
Humanities, exhibit highlights 
include a virtual-reality 
Hastings Street experience, 
an interactive neighborhood 
map populated with listings 
from the 1907 Detroit Yiddish 
directory, and recreations of a 
1910 Kosher butcher shop and 
a typical 1920s home sourced 
with community objects. 

Organization wants more artifacts 
for upcoming exhibit.

Jewish Historical 
Society’s Wish List

SHARI COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

• metal pail
• Faygo items
• passports
• mezuzahs
• wine bottles
• Detroit deli menus
• Haggadah
• icebox
• sink 
• drinking glasses
• coffee cups (porcelain or tin)
• empty bottles and milk bottles
• food boxes
• commercial product containers (tobacco, 
cleaning supplies, soap, etc.)
• broom/dustpan/mop
• oil/hurricane lamp
• candelabra or hanging lamp
• chamber pot
• recipe card box
• mantel/fireplace
• sewing box and notions

Items Wanted

For the exhibit, JHSM 
seeks the following 
objects (all pre-1930) to 
represent the daily life of a typical 
working-class immigrant family:

All items loaned for the exhibit will be 
processed through the Detroit Historical 
Museum and covered by the museum’s 
insurance policies. In January, DHM staff will 
arrange drop-off dates to collect community 
objects. Alternate arrangements will be 
available as needed. 
Send object descriptions and 
photos to JHSM’s executive director, 
Catherine Cangany, Ph.D.: (248) 915-
1848 or ccangany@jhsmichigan.
org. More information 
about the exhibit, 
including sponsorship 
opportunities, can 
be found at www.
jhsmichigan.org. 

OUR COMMUNITY

COURTESY OF THE WALTER P. REUTHER LIBRARY, ARCHIVES OF LABOR AND URBAN AFFAIRS, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY

PHOTOS ARE COURTESY OF 
ELAYNE GROSS PHOTOGRAPHY

