The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art

The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art Sharing the legacy of Jewish art, history & culture since 1965. Dedicated to eradicating hate and fostering understanding among diverse cultures.
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The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art (SMMJA) expects all comments, private messages, and other interactions on SMMJA’s page to be respectful and courteous. SMMJA reserves the right to remove or hide content that includes, but is not limited to:

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r sexual material.
• Advocating the commission of a criminal act.
• Off-topic or disruptive remarks. SMMJA also reserves the right to temporarily block or ban users whose posts or comments on the SMMJA page fall within the above categories. Through the lens of both fine art and artifacts, the collection provides a testament and tribute to the resiliency of the Jewish people and those who seek to learn more about them. Special exhibits and events showcase works representing Jewish artists from historic to modern times. The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art is located on the Zarrow Campus at 2021 E 71st St in Tulsa and is open to the public Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 10 am to 5 pm, Saturday and Sunday Noon to 5 pm and closed on Wednesdays.

This Labor Day, we’re looking to our collection.Created by Theodore Fried in 1925, 'Ouvrier'—French for “worker”—capture...
09/06/2026

This Labor Day, we’re looking to our collection.

Created by Theodore Fried in 1925, 'Ouvrier'—French for “worker”—captures a laborer absorbed in his work.

Labor Day was established to recognize the contributions of American workers and the labor movement. More than a century after Fried created this image, his worker offers a fitting opportunity to reflect on the people whose labor has shaped our communities.

The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art will be closed Monday, September 7, in observance of Labor Day. We will reopen Tuesday, September 8, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Theodore Fried, Ouvrier, 1925
Conte, mounted
The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art Permanent Collection
Accession 2004.36.675.1-4
Theodore Fried Trust

For this week’s Fine Art Friday, we’re traveling back to one of the Hebrew Bible’s most legendary royal encounters: the ...
09/04/2026

For this week’s Fine Art Friday, we’re traveling back to one of the Hebrew Bible’s most legendary royal encounters: the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon.

According to the Book of Kings, the Queen of Sheba journeyed to Jerusalem after hearing of Solomon’s extraordinary wisdom. She arrived with a grand caravan bearing gold, spices and precious stones—and tested the king with difficult questions. Impressed by his wisdom and the splendor of his kingdom, she declared that what she had heard did not compare to what she witnessed for herself.

In this richly detailed 19th-century oil painting, German artist Franz Frantzen imagines the moment of their meeting, surrounding the two rulers with courtiers, attendants and treasures.

Part of the permanent collection of The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, the painting is a beautiful example of how stories from Jewish tradition have inspired artists across centuries and cultures.

🎨 Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon
Franz Frantzen
Germany, 19th century
Oil on canvas
Accession No. 1975.15

Hatred and persecution rarely remain confined to a single community.In the first image, an identification tag from our c...
09/04/2026

Hatred and persecution rarely remain confined to a single community.

In the first image, an identification tag from our collection is displayed with a historic photograph of a prisoner registered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The black triangle on his uniform was part of the N**i system used to classify concentration camp prisoners and identified people the regime labeled “asocial.”

In the second image, we see the reverse of the identification tag. It was used to identify a non-Jewish prisoner at a N**i slave labor camp in the Nordhausen area of Germany.

The Holocaust was the systematic persecution and murder of six million Jews. The N**i regime also imprisoned and persecuted millions of non-Jews, including political opponents, resistance fighters, Roma and Sinti, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gay men, forced laborers from occupied nations and others targeted by the regime.

This small artifact preserves a piece of that history. We may not know the name or story of the person who wore it, but the tag remains evidence of an individual life caught within the vast system of N**i persecution.

ID Tag, ca. 1940s
Gift of friends and family in honor of the birthday of Barbara Sylvan
SMMJA 1993.25

Historic photograph: Prisoner registered at Auschwitz-Birkenau, ca. 1940s. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection.

The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art remembers Gloria Steinem (1934–2026), the pioneering journalist, author and acti...
09/03/2026

The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art remembers Gloria Steinem (1934–2026), the pioneering journalist, author and activist whose work helped reshape the modern women’s movement.

For more than half a century, Steinem challenged the social and political structures that limited women’s lives. As a writer and organizer, she brought national attention to issues including equal pay, reproductive freedom, workplace discrimination, sexual violence and women’s political representation. She co-founded Ms. magazine and the National Women’s Political Caucus, helping create new platforms through which women could tell their own stories, organize and advocate for change.

Her activism extended beyond women’s rights. Steinem consistently connected feminism with broader struggles for racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, civil rights and human dignity, arguing that systems of inequality could not be confronted in isolation.

Born to a Jewish father and Christian mother and raised largely without organized religion, Steinem nevertheless spoke openly about the Jewish heritage she inherited through her father’s family. Her paternal grandmother, Pauline Perlmutter Steinem, was herself a Jewish suffragist and activist—a legacy Gloria would carry forward in her own generation.

Steinem once reflected on that identity:

“Never in my life have I identified myself as a Christian, but wherever there is antisemitism, I identify as a Jew.”

Her life was defined by the belief that speaking up matters—and that the struggle for equality requires standing beside those targeted by prejudice and injustice.

May her memory be a blessing. זיכרונה לברכה 🕯️

This past Monday, we were honored to welcome leaders from the Tulsa Regional Chamber and Tulsa Regional Tourism to The S...
09/03/2026

This past Monday, we were honored to welcome leaders from the Tulsa Regional Chamber and Tulsa Regional Tourism to The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art!

Michael S. Neal, President & CEO of the Tulsa Regional Chamber; Justin McLaughlin, Executive Vice President & COO; and Meg Gould, Executive Director & Film Commissioner of the Tulsa Office of Film, Music, Arts & Culture, joined us for a special tour led by our Director of Collections, Greg Falconetti.

Their work plays an important role in strengthening Tulsa’s economy, expanding tourism, and elevating the arts and cultural experiences that make our city such a special place to live and visit. We were proud to share the Museum’s collection, our 60-year history, and some of the remarkable stories preserved here in Tulsa.

Thank you, Michael, Justin and Meg, for spending the afternoon with us and for all you do to help Tulsa thrive. We loved having you at the Museum!

On September 1, 1941, N**i authorities issued a decree requiring Jews in Germany to wear a yellow Star of David marked “...
09/02/2026

On September 1, 1941, N**i authorities issued a decree requiring Jews in Germany to wear a yellow Star of David marked “Jude,” turning a symbol of Jewish identity into a tool of forced identification, isolation and persecution.

This history is represented in our collection through the velvet evening gown of Rachel Weiss, a Jewish woman who fled Germany for Switzerland in 1939. A yellow Star of David marked “Jude” was later sewn onto the gown, which remained behind after Rachel escaped and was eventually recovered in Rotag, Germany.

More than eight decades later, the gown gives this history a human scale. It reminds us that persecution was not only carried out through camps and mass violence—it was built through laws and restrictions that increasingly intruded into the everyday lives of Jewish people.

A dress once worn for an evening out became evidence of a regime that sought to determine how its owner could live, where she could go and how the world would identify her.

Rachel escaped. Her dress survived. Today, we preserve it so that her story—and the history it carries—will not be forgotten.

Gift of friends and family in honor of Barbara Sylvan.
Accession No. 1993.23

You never know which object will make a museum feel personal.We loved welcoming Chad and Markayla to the Museum today! W...
09/01/2026

You never know which object will make a museum feel personal.

We loved welcoming Chad and Markayla to the Museum today! While exploring our Judaica collection, Chad was especially drawn to this remarkable ship by the Swed Masters Workshop.

Coming from a Navy family and being an engineer himself, he was fascinated to learn how the workshop brought together skilled silversmiths and engineers to combine traditional craftsmanship with modern technology. Their Judaica was designed to be disassembled for cleaning, polishing and long-term care.

It was a wonderful reminder that every visitor brings their own history into the Museum—and sometimes one object creates an unexpected connection.

Thank you, Chad and Markayla, for visiting and sharing your reflections with us!

Accession No. 2010.41

08/31/2026

Your daily dose of ✨ museum dopamine ✨ — and apparently, it might be good for more than just your mood.

Research published in The BMJ found that adults who regularly spent time engaging with the arts — including visiting museums, galleries and exhibitions — were associated with a 31% lower risk of mortality over a 14-year period compared with those who didn’t engage with the arts. (BMJ)

So consider this your scientifically supported excuse to spend a little more time at the Museum.

From the galleries to the archives, there’s always something at The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art to spark curiosity, inspire you, and give your brain a little boost of museum dopamine.

Come get your dose. ✨

This week’s Theodore Fried Friday features a delicate watercolor from the Museum’s collection, capturing the quiet beaut...
08/29/2026

This week’s Theodore Fried Friday features a delicate watercolor from the Museum’s collection, capturing the quiet beauty of a flowering iris through Fried’s expressive use of color and wash.

Theodore Fried (1902–1980) was a Hungarian-born Jewish artist whose work spanned painting, drawing, sculpture, and printmaking. His intimate studies of the natural world reveal the same sensitivity to form and color found throughout his broader body of work.

Each Friday, we’re highlighting a different work by Fried as we continue exploring the depth of his artistic legacy within the Museum’s collection.

Theodore Fried
Accession No. 2026.4.29
Collection of The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art

Two words carrying an extraordinary warning.“Juden unerwünscht” — “Jews Uninvited.”This antisemitic sign from the 1930s,...
08/28/2026

Two words carrying an extraordinary warning.

“Juden unerwünscht” — “Jews Uninvited.”

This antisemitic sign from the 1930s, preserved in the SMMJA collection, is a stark reminder of how hatred can become part of the ordinary landscape of everyday life.

Before the Holocaust reached the horrors that would come to define it, Jewish people were progressively pushed to the margins of society. Antisemitism became increasingly visible and normalized, reinforced through propaganda, discriminatory laws, exclusion from public life, and signs like this one that openly declared where Jews were not welcome.

That is one reason preserving objects like this matters.

They remind us that history is shaped not only by its most catastrophic moments, but by the choices that precede them — by what a society accepts, what it challenges, whose dignity it protects, and whose humanity it is willing to defend.

Museums preserve these reminders not to leave hatred in the past, but to carry their lessons forward.

May remembering inspire us to recognize antisemitism and hatred in all their forms, to speak when others are being pushed to the margins, and to help build a world in which no person is made to feel that they do not belong.

The Sanditen/Kaiser Holocaust Center at the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art preserves and interprets artifacts, testimony, and history that help tell the story of the Holocaust and ensure its lessons continue to reach future generations.

Learn more about the Sanditen/Kaiser Holocaust Center and plan your visit:
https://www.jewishmuseumtulsa.org/the-sanditen-kaiser-holocaust-center

Anti-Semitic Sign, ca. 1930s
“Juden Unerwünscht” (“Jews Uninvited”)
Gift of Fred and Martha Strauss
SMMJA Collection, 2015.10

Address

2021 E 71st Street
Tulsa, OK
74136

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm
Sunday 12pm - 5pm

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+19184921818

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