What's On

About the Collections

The Skirball holds one of the largest collections of Jewish art and material culture in America, with objects of art and history that reveal much about daily life, beliefs, customs, worship, values, human yearnings, historical experiences, and artistic achievement from biblical to contemporary times. The museum's collections—some 30,000 objects and growing—span history and the globe, reflecting Jewish life throughout virtually every era and part of the world. The museum's mission is to advance knowledge, preserve heritage and promote understanding by exploring the complex nature of Jewish life in the context of society as a whole.

The Museum's Collections

The Skirball's extensive and wide-ranging collections include:

• archaeological materials from biblical and later historical periods illuminating early Jewish life
• an extraordinary body of Jewish ceremonial art ranging over the last five centuries of Jewish life
• an important assemblage of coins, medals, and seals
• an extensive group of objects exemplifying Jewish historical experience
• the Project Americana collection, items that document the everyday life of ordinary people during three centuries of American Jewish life
• and the stellar fine arts holdings, comprised of thousands of graphics, paintings, sculptures, and other works in a variety of media

The Museum's History

The Skirball Museum has a long history as one of the oldest repositories of Jewish cultural artifacts in America. The first stage in the museum's development lasted for nearly a century, beginning when Hebrew Union College (HUC) opened in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1875 and over time began accepting donations of Judaic objects and books. In 1913 the College's Union Museum was founded with the assistance of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, becoming the first formally established Jewish museum in the United States. In the 1920s, the collections rapidly expanded with the purchase of several significant private collections of Judaica, including those of Salli Kirchstein, Joseph Hamburger, and Louis Grossman. In 1950, HUC merged with the Jewish Institute of Religion (JIR), and in 1972, with the generosity of the Skirball Foundation providing initial support, the collection relocated to Los Angeles.

In its new home at the HUC-JIR campus in Los Angeles, the now-renamed Skirball Museum became this city's first Jewish museum. It served a primarily Jewish and largely academic audience until it reopened in 1996 as the central component of the new Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, where visitors of all ages and backgrounds experience its critically acclaimed exhibitions and public programs every year.