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Our History
Our Children's Galleries
The Jewish Children's Learning
Lab, a Jewish non-denominational organization, was founded to fulfill
a need for new, captivating ways to engage school children and families
in Jewish culture and heritage, using the methods and techniques employed
by the most successful non-sectarian children's museums.
JCLL was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in 1995, and moved into its temporary offices, donated by the Board of Jewish Education, in August of that year. Grants from the Thomas Borowik Philanthropic Fund and the Jewish Continuity Commission of UJA Federation, paid over three years, along with other contributions, permitted the official beginning of operations. By the end of 1995, JCLL had a Steering Committee of 15 members and an advisory committee of the same size.
In 1996, thanks to major grants from the Ricky & Andrew J. Shechtel Philanthropic Fund and from the Forchheimer Foundation, JCLL was able to develop and fabricate FROM HOME TO HOME: Jewish Immigration to America. This traveling, fully interactive exhibition for children ages 6 - 12, opened in October 1996 at the Sol Goldman Y of the Educational Alliance. Since its opening, FROM HOME TO HOME has traveled to 14 communities across the United States and was visited by over 250 school groups in its various locations; 35,000 children and adults have enjoyed the exhibition which was refurbished in the fall of 2000.
In October 1999, JCLL completed
its second exhibition, FROM TENT TO TEMPLE: Life in the Ancient Near East.
This exciting exhibition was made possible through generous grants from:
Computer Generated Solutions; Inc.; Leo and Julia Forchheimer Foundation;
The Spencer Raphael Jaffe Trust Foundation; Jesselson Foundation; Joseph
and Ceil Mazer Family Fund; Posen Foundation; Steven Spielberg's Righteous
Persons Foundation; S. H. and Helen Scheuer Family Foundation, and The
Ricky & Andrew J. Shechtel Philanthropic Fund.
The exhibition opened in the new Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History in the spring of 2000. It remained there through January 2001, and then moved to its second location in Overland Park, Kansas, from where it traveled to the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne.
In February 2002, JCLL opened a space of 3400 usable sf in the gallery district in Chelsea, New York City. The space, named Children's Galleries for Jewish Culture, allows JCLL to offer its exhibitions and a variety of programs to audiences in the New York tristate area throughout the year.
Since the opening of the Children's Galleries for Jewish Culture in February 2002, the attendance in the Children's Galleries has tripled. JCLL is reaching the audiences it set out to reach through visits of classes from public and non-sectarian private schools. In the current academic year, 50% of the schools that have booked visits are public.
In 2003, the exhibition From Tent to Temple had been on a loan at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, and the exhibition From Home to Home was hosted by the American Jewish Museum at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. JCLL has begun to develop its third exhibition: FROM ALPH TO A: How Sounds Became Letters (working title), and is currently soliciting funds for its fabrication.