Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans

An exhibition at the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans, tracing Jewish life in the American South over about 350 years, from the first arrivals to the civil rights movement, through artifacts and rotating displays.

The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience is a museum in New Orleans devoted to the history of Jewish communities in the South. Its collection holds more than 4,000 artifacts that follow this history across roughly 350 years, beginning with the earliest Jewish arrivals in the region and continuing through the Revolutionary War and the civil rights movement. The objects show the part Jewish Southerners played in those periods and how Jewish traditions took on elements of Southern culture.

The museum's galleries present this story in permanent displays, and a Special Exhibition Gallery changes over time, presenting particular stories of Jewish communities in the South with art and artifacts. A short introduction video of about ten minutes opens the visit before visitors move into the galleries.

The visit suits people interested in American regional history and in Jewish community life, and the galleries are arranged to follow the story in broadly chronological order, from early settlement to the mid-twentieth century.