When Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) joined Congress in 2004, her constituents in South Florida sent her with a task. Dedicate a month comparable to Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month, and Women’s History Month that honors the Jewish community’s contributions to the United States.
Resolutions passed in both the U.S. Senate and the House urging the President to proclaim a month specifically recognizing Jews in America and their many contributions to American culture, history, military, science, and government. In 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month. And every year since, Presidents Obama, Trump, Biden, and Trump have recognized the occasion.
Here are five ways to learn about the experiences and contributions of Jewish Americans to the United States:
1) Take in a museum
There are so many repositories of Jewish history throughout the U.S. You’re bound to find one close enough for a day trip. Here are just a few.
In New York, the Center for Jewish History and the Museum of Jewish Heritage welcomes visitors to learn about the broad tapestry of Jewish cultural life going back centuries. A walking tour of the Lower East Side, where most Jews lived at the turn of the 20th Century, including The Tenement Museum, also provides a window into the American Jewish experience.
The Weitzman National Museum of Jewish History in Philadelphia brings our past to life through one of the largest collections of Jewish Americana in the nation, with more than 30,000 objects. Down south, the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans and the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta explore the remarkable stories of the Southern Jewish adventure.
Meanwhile, grab your superhero cape and head to the Maltz Museum in Cleveland for the special exhibition “Icons in Ink: The Jewish Comics Experience,” on view from May 7 through August 23, 2026. In Wisconsin, the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee offers “48 Jews: Layers of Identity,” a celebration of Jewish identity through bold portraiture, from March 6 through September 6, 2026.
At the same time, the Skirball Cultural Center of Los Angeles will debut “Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels + Weirdos: Punk Culture 1976-86,” opening May 20, 2026. This original exhibition celebrates how a generation of misfits—including Jewish punks—challenged the rules, reimagined community, and helped reshape culture from the margins.
2) Curl up with a good book
This year’s National Jewish Book Awards recognized a wide range of authors and topics. Pamela S. Nadell’s Antisemitism, An American Tradition recounts antisemitic discrimination in the U.S. – from early-American efforts to prevent Jews from being elected to the 2019 mass shooting at Chabad of Poway, California. In Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy, journalist Julia Ioffe examines Russia’s political evolution by centering women’s experiences, arguing that the erosion of early Soviet gender equality helped enable today’s authoritarian system. In As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story From Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us, Sarah Hurwitz – former speechwriter to Michelle Obama – analyzes how external pressure and inherited stereotypes have distorted Jewish life and makes the case for consciously reclaiming Jewish tradition.
In a richly researched biography, The Prosecutor: One Man’s Battle to Bring Nazis to Justice, Jack Fairweather shares the story of Fritz Bauer, a gay German Jewish judge and prosecutor. A former concentration camp prisoner, Bauer devoted his legal career to bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, orchestrating the capture of Adolf Eichmann and overseeing the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial.
Finally, in Living in Both Worlds: Modern Orthodox Judaism in the United States, 1945 – 2025, Lawrence Grossman traces how Modern Orthodox Judaism in the United States has sought to reconcile religious commitment with participation in American cultural, educational, and professional life since World War II.
3) Watch a show or movie
Watch The Pitt, a gripping medical drama whose Jewish protagonist – Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, played by the fantastic Noah Wyle – explicitly draws on Jewish ritual and identity, including moments of prayer and reflection integrated into the narrative. You can also check out The Studio, a satire about Hollywood management by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg that, while not religious, highlights Hollywood's Jewish cultural connection due to its creators, humor, and themes of ethics, power, and identity.
In movies, try A Complete Unknown, a biographical musical (starring Jewish actor Timothée Chalamet) focusing on Bob Dylan’s early career, portraying Jewish identity as an underlying cultural force in his artistic development. Another excellent film, The Brutalist, follows a Jewish Hungarian architect who survives the Holocaust and emigrates to postwar America, where the promise of artistic freedom and success becomes entangled with trauma, power, and moral compromise. Jewish actor Adrien Brody took home the best-actor Oscar for his stirring performance.
4) Become a next-level Jewish chef
Up your kitchen game and stock up on new recipes. Fresh off the press is Raegan Steinberg, Alexander Cohen, and Evelyne Eng’s Arthurs: Home of the Nosh – A Big Personality Cookbook of Delicious Jewish Favorites. Named for their popular Montreal brunch spot, the authors serve up more than 115 classic Jewish comfort foods alongside personal stories, humor, and reflections that bring Jewish cooking and community to life. Blending accessible recipes with cultural memory, the book emphasizes food as a vehicle for tradition, connection, and joy across generations.
Another tasty option is Dobre Dobre, by the American-born, Berlin-based writer Laurel Kratochvila, which explores the rich traditions of Polish baking through more than a hundred recipes that reflect both Jewish and non‑Jewish influences shaped by migration, history, and diaspora. Combining baked goods with cultural context and historical reflection, the book reclaims Poland’s Jewish baking legacy while situating it within a broader, contemporary European food story.
Finally, bagel enthusiasts (and really, who isn’t?) should not miss Russ & Daughters: 100 Years of Appetizing by Niki Russ Federman, Josh Russ Tupper, and Joshua David Stein. This cookbook chronicles the history of the iconic Lower East Side shop through family stories, cultural memory, and recipes that reflect a century of Jewish immigrant life in New York. Blending food history with memoir, the book shows how appetizing traditions helped sustain Jewish identity, continuity, and community across generations.
5) Listen to American Jewish voices
There are so many amazing American Jewish voices available right from your phone!
For perspectives on a range of issues that affect American Jews, explore the catalog of interviews featured on AJC’s People of the Pod. Get your fill of Israel-Diaspora relations and big questions about Jewish identity today through the Shalom Hartman Institute’s podcasts For Heaven’s Sake with Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi, and Identity/Crisis with Yehuda Kurtzer.
For the policy wonks (and wannabe wonks) check out Dan Senor’s Call Me Back and Aviva Klompas’ Boundless Insights for fascinating political and geopolitical analysis from the world’s top experts, thought leaders, and change-makers.
Wondering Jews is a thoughtful and engaging podcast where hosts Mijal Bitton and Noam Weissman explore big questions facing American Jews today—from identity and belonging to politics, Israel, and Jewish continuity. Blending personal insight with intellectual depth, the show invites listeners to rethink what it means to be Jewish in a changing world.
Finally, enjoy Being Jewish with Jonah Platt, which explores contemporary Jewish life through personal conversations with notable Jews and non-Jewish allies alike.
Want to get off your phone? You can also hear some legendary Jewish voices by visiting AJC’s collection at the New York Public Library, the mother of all American Jewish oral histories. The 156,000 pages of transcripts, 6,000 hours of taped interviews with 2,250 informants chronicle “the American Jewish experience in the 20th century.”
Test your knowledge of the rich culture and heritage of the Jewish people and their many contributions to our nation by taking our quiz!
