The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU and the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab will present History Harvest: Remembering Our Past to Shape Our Future, scheduled to take place at JMOF-FIU on Sunday, March 12, 2023. From 11AM to 3PM, visitors can help build the museum’s physical and digital collections through donated items, objects, and stories while also enjoying children’s activities, and more.

A part of Florida International University’s Community Data Curation: Preserving, Creating, and Narrating Everyday Stories project, the primary goal of History Harvest is to gather donations of notable artifacts in order to help the museum better tell the story of Florida’s Jewish communities. The items and stories gathered from contributions at History Harvest will be used for educational purposes and may be featured in future exhibitions at JMOF-FIU.

Representatives from the JMOF-FIU collections department as well as an appraiser will be on site during History Harvest to assist attendees who wish to make donations. The museum will accept artifacts and ephemera pertaining to Jewish business, professional, and community life, with an emphasis on the last fifty years (1970-2020).

Items related to politicians, generational family businesses, congregation development, Jewish community organizations and leadership, STEAM professions, and Jewish education are especially welcome. Large artifacts, family heirlooms, books, framed artwork, family papers, photographs of ordinary events, and clothing will not be accepted for donation.

Digitization methods will be available to those visitors who wish to keep their items, and video equipment will be present for guests who seek to contribute relevant oral histories to the museum’s collection. Community members who would like to make a donation but are unable to attend History Harvest are encouraged to reach out to JMOF-FIU Registrar Todd Bothel at tbothel@fiu.edu for assistance evaluating their artifact(s).

The museum’s extensive collection of artifacts, documents, photographs, and oral histories focuses on the people who have shaped and continue to influence the development of Florida, drawing crucial links between their lives and the wider immigrant experience. Funding for History Harvest is provided through a grant from the Mellon Foundation.