Doctoral Students Attend a Special YU Museum Workshop On Wednesday, June 26, 2019, a group of 19 doctoral students from the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration came to the YU Museum for a day of special programming organized by Ilana Benson, director of museum education, together with Dr. Rona Novick (dean of Azrieli), Dr. Moshe Sokolow (director of the Fanya Gottesfeld-Heller Doctoral Program), and one of the students, Julie Golding. The group included principals, administrators and educators from schools in the NYC area and from cities around the country such as Los Angeles and Boston. The theme for the day was “Community and Community Resources.” The students began their day with a special walking tour presented by Annie Polland, executive director of the American Jewish Historical Society. They visited important Jewish historical sites in the blocks near the Museum, including the original location of Macy’s Department Store, the West Eleventh Street Cemetery (the second historic cemetery of Congregation Shearith Israel, consecrated on February 27, 1805) and the home of poet Emma Lazarus, where one of the students stood on the steps and read aloud Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus” (which is cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the lower level of the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty). Back at the Museum, Dr. Jacob Wisse addressed the group, presenting the fascinating story of the Lost & Found family album in the context of the communities and audiences that were addressed and influenced by the photo album’s unlikely history. The students also visited the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History (which houses the YU Museum), where staff members Moriah Amit and J.D. Arden demonstrated how to access online resources and spent time in the Hey, Wow! exhibition gallery to learn how the Museum uses Oded Halahmy’s art to teach about Iraqi Jewish culture and about the significance of symbolic shapes. To complete their immersion in the Museum’s resources, the students were treated to hands-on access to a group of objects from the Museum’s permanent collection selected especially for them by Bonni-Dara Michaels, collections curator. They were particularly intrigued by a tiny manuscript book written in Barbados in 1742 and by a pair of silver Torah finials from Morocco.