Happy special birthday to Judy Maslin. Judy, who holds a Masters in Art History, is the founding director of the Temple Judea Museum. During her time running the museum she set a gold standard for all who follow her. She seamlessly integrated the separate collections of Keneseth Israel and Temple Judea, the two synagogues that merged in 1982, forming this museum.
Judy developed a registration system for cataloging our objects that we still use today. She also instituted a rigorous approach to Judaic scholarship, holding classes based around the collection and the Jacob Landau Prophetic Quest stained glass windows in the Korn Memorial Sanctuary.
In addition to her work with the growing permanent collection she oversaw and developed an ongoing series of temporary Judaica, Jewish history and Jewish art exhibitions. Again, setting a very high standard of scholarship and aesthetic vision.
Judy has generously been a mentor to me over these many years and I am proud to call her a friend and follow in her footsteps.
Rita Rosen Poley
PS – For anyone who wants to understand what those letters and numbers on our exhibition labels that Judy developed mean, here is an example:
J-GR260.20.682
The first letter (J) tells you that the object is Jewish art
GR tells you that it is a graphic (a print)
260 tells you that it is the 260th print in the Graphics collection
20 tells you that it came into the collection in 2020
And 682 means that this print is the 682nd object to come into the overall collection.
Simple. Once you know the code!
Thank you Judy, and Happy Birthday!
In the photograph Judy (on the left) is pictured with Norma Meshkov, Chair of the TJM Friends