JEWISH AMERICAN IDENTITY THROUGH FOOD, ACTIVISM AND ARCHIVES: The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is promoting the following event for Jewish American Heritage Month.

Join curators, librarians, and educators at The New York Public Library for a virtual event exploring the richness and complexity of Jewish American life through food traditions, community activism, and archival treasures. Drawing on materials from the Library’s special collections and educator resources, this program highlights objects and stories that reflect the diversity of Jewish identity in the United States.

Participants will learn about NYPL’s Jewish Cookbooks LibGuide, a resource guide that takes readers on a culinary journey through migration, adaptation, and memory. Recipes and cookbooks serve as windows into the lived experiences of Jewish immigrants, showing how food preserves culture and evolves across generations.

The event also explores Jewish American histories of labor organizing and tenant activism through New York City’s Rent Strikers: Jewish Activism & Housing Reform in the Progressive Era, a curriculum guide developed by NYPL’s Center for Educators and Schools. This guide features primary sources, historical context, and classroom-ready materials that illuminate the connections between Jewish communities and broader movements for housing justice and workers’ rights.

We will also spotlight items from NYPL’s Dorot Jewish Division digital exhibitions, including Visualizing Jewish New York and Building Jewish Life in the United States. Through postcards, photographs, and other artifacts, we’ll explore how Jewish life has been documented and expressed across time and place.

This virtual event is at 4 p.m. Register at www.nypl.org/events/programs/2025/05/08/jewish-american-identity-through-food-activism-archives