About JHNC

In November 2020, our Board of Directors voted in favor of a new mission, anchored by a guiding set of values that will influence our forthcoming programming and priorities

Our Mission

As the only statewide organization dedicated to preserving and sharing North Carolina’s Jewish history and culture, Jewish Heritage North Carolina connects communities and educates diverse and multigenerational audiences.

Our Values

• Education: We believe that education about Jewish life across the state promotes understanding by sharing our commonalities and respecting our differences. We welcome opportunities to teach and to learn from others within and outside the Jewish community.
• Authenticity: We embrace and thoughtfully examine our region’s diverse Jewish stories in all of their complexity and character.
• Intersectionality: We explore the unique intersections of Jewish American life in North Carolina, while also recognizing that the Jewish story is just one lens through which the broader story of our state, nation, and world may be explored.
• Grit: North Carolina’s generations of Jews have built lives and homes here, overcoming obstacles and inspiring today’s thriving communities.
• Equity and Acceptance: As a people who have faced persecution and discrimination, we denounce racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, homophobia, and hatred in all of its forms, and commit to uplifting and supporting marginalized voices, including within and beyond our own Jewish community.

We have mounted two museum exhibits: ‘Migrations: Jewish Settlers of Eastern North Carolina’ and our hallmark exhibition, ‘Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina’, which is a multi-media project comprised of a traveling museum exhibit, acclaimed DVD, book and curriculum guide.

As part of our mission to serve North Carolina’s diverse Jewish communities, JHNC has become a resource for many of our state’s Jewish congregations– both new and long-time established. We continue to serve as custodian for prayer books, ritual objects, and sanctuary furnishings; sometimes from rural North Carolina congregations which have been forced to close their doors. And rather than become a repository, we have helped to re-purpose these special synagogue items for congregations, especially those newly forming. Fostering connections to support North Carolina’s expanding Jewish communities is an important role JHNC serves.

JHNC is limited in the number and size of objects we can accept, and regret that unless an item has a clear connection with North Carolina Jewish history, we will be unable to serve as its custodian

Please include as much information about the object as possible, when you email us and include:

1. The type of object and a brief description of its condition.
2. Where and how it is currently stored.
3. Who owns the object?
4. Why the object is endangered or can no longer be held by its current owner.
5. What is its connection with North Carolina?
6. If possible, a photograph would be helpful.

Please email the above information to us at info@jewishnc.org

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