The Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina (JHFNC) was founded in 1996 as the Rosenzweig Museum. Its goal was to display a collection of Judaica bequeathed to Durham’s Judea Reform Congregation by its founding Rabbi, Efraim Rosenzweig. Rabbi Rosenzweig, an artist, poet and social activist, was devoted to teaching and community outreach and envisioned an organization that could share the beauty of Jewish customs, art and practice.

Over the years community members have brought artifacts, heirlooms, family photographs and their memories to be preserved by the JHFNC. Out of these gifts grew several original exhibits, including :

What We Brought with Us - an exhibit of personal items and stories of North Carolina’s Holocaust survivors, held at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh.

Migrations - an exhibit portraying the history of Jewish settlement in eastern North Carolina that traveled to eight venues throughout the state.

The Life and Times of Efraim Rosenzweig - a retrospective exhibit about the turbulent social times of Rabbi Rosenzweig’s tenure, exploring his life through his art and writing.

These exhibitions were pivotal in the evolution of the JHFNC into a statewide Jewish cultural organization.

Our newest and most ambitious program, Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina, is a multimedia project that will celebrate a remarkable and compelling story of personal endeavor that has left an indelible mark on the progressive development of the state of North Carolina.

The JHFNC now concentrates on three areas:

• To operate the Rosenzweig Gallery as a presenter of both original and traveling exhibits. In coming years, it is hoped that these exhibits will be mounted in other venues across the state.

• To collect, preserve, and present the history of the Jewish people of North Carolina.

• To serve as a custodian, collecting, preserving, and finding new homes for Jewish ritual objects that may be lost as rural Jewish communities dissolve.

Our Mission

We seek to promote understanding of the Jewish people by educating both Jews and the general public about the history, culture, and religion of the Jewish people and by encouraging appreciation of the beauty of Jewish ritual and practice.

In our custodian role we seek to collect and preserve artifacts and to record the history of the Jews of North Carolina, as well as to conduct programs that examine and portray the Jewish presence in North Carolina.

The JHFNC seeks to strengthen Jewish communal bonds among North Carolina’s diverse communities by maintaining networks that connect Judaica collections and Jewish educational resources across the state and by creating bridges between the older established community and our many newly arriving residents.