As Washington, D.C., area workers fear for their job security amid federal layoffs, the Capital Jewish Museum is collecting and displaying artifacts related to Jewish federal employees.
The museum announced the start of the initiative to collect these documents, artifacts, photographs and memorabilia on March 20. Artifacts on current display include a 1997 photo of disability rights activist Judy Heumann next to the FDR memorial statue and her 2010 identification badge for the United States State Department.
Past artifacts include a U.S. Senate staffer’s pin and a letter of recommendation from President Benjamin Harrison for federal employment; the Museum quarterly changes the display, which is viewable for several weeks. (Other artifacts reflecting different subjects and themes go up in between.)
“The museum has long been interested in artifacts related to federal workers,” Beatrice Gurwitz, CJM’s executive director, said. “The federal government and the Jewish community in D.C. have grown up alongside of each other. Expansion of the federal government has generally meant expansion of the Jewish community in D.C.”
The Display
The D.C. region houses about 310,000 federal workers, making up 15% of the nationwide total, according to The Washington Post. The United States federal civil service began officially in 1871, Sarah Leavitt, CJM’s director of curatorial affairs, wrote in a blog post.
“As early as the 19th century, when the civil service was established, there were Jews participating,” Gurwitz said.
During this post-Civil War era, about 2,000 Jewish residents lived in D.C., many of them working for the federal government. Jewish grocers and other small business owners in the area earned a “steady income” from these federal workers, Leavitt wrote.
The New Deal and World Wars I and II brought an influx of Jewish Americans to the nation’s capital to join the federal workforce, D.C.’s primary employer. Jewish business owners and government workers were drawn to the city and thrived, Leavitt wrote. By 1956, more than one-third of Jewish Washingtonians were federal employees.
“Jewish history in D.C. is tied to the federal workforce,” Gurwitz said. “We’re interested in Jewish accomplishments and contributions to the nation in D.C., and federal service is a key part of that, as scientists, as diplomats, as public health [workers], lawyers. … It just tells the story of Jewish engagement with our civic culture and public service and contributions to the nation.”
Some Jewish Americans sought work in the federal government because they were allowed more opportunities in the public sector, Gurwitz said. Others experienced a lack of access to particular agencies due to antisemitism.
Gurwitz is interested in exploring how these Jewish federal workers incorporated Jewish life and their Jewish identities into their work days.
“We have, in our collection, pictures of people in a daily minyan in various agencies dating back several years where people are working for a workforce and taking a moment aside to connect with other people at their agency and pray together,” she said. “I love these examples of an observant Jewish subculture within different federal agencies.”
Gurwitz spoke with Rabbi Avrom Landesman, a co-founder of Woodside Synagogue, about the stream of Orthodox Jews who relocated to Greater Washington to work for the federal government in the early 1960s. This influx not only allowed for increased engagement in federal service, but also led to the founding of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington in Silver Spring.
The Present Day
Although many of the artifacts on display date back decades or centuries, Gurwitz said the Museum’s initiative is relevant today.
Gurwitz, whose kids attend Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School in D.C., recently received a survey from the school asking whether she’s a federal employee, how many federal employees there are in the family and how many family members’ jobs are closely tied to the cuts to the federal workforce: “They’re trying to spring into action to figure out how they can have enough financial aid for next year.”
Milton is among the many local Jewish institutions — schools, summer camps and social services agencies — that are attempting to respond to this crisis. The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington allocated $180,000 to support laid-off federal workers, and area synagogues are offering resources to those who are affected.
“It just shows how much the federal government is tied to the fabric of the Jewish world,” Gurwitz said.
The Backstory
Gurwitz said there are a plethora of interesting stories to tell about the United States federal government. In 2024, Sue Ducat, who has long been involved with the Museum since before its opening, expressed interest in supporting more storytelling regarding Jewish federal workers and additional collecting of artifacts illustrating the history of Jews in the federal workforce.
“[Ducat] gave us a very generous gift this year to launch this initiative focused on federal workers,” Gurwitz said.
The donation is in honor of Ducat’s husband, Stanley Cohen, who had worked for more than four decades for the U.S. Department of Education. Cohen was initially hired as a speechwriter and researcher for the DOE, but that changed when the Environmental Protection Agency banned spray-applied surfacing materials that contained asbestos. When the EPA needed to send out guidelines to schools about how to avoid these products, Cohen stepped up.
“It became clear that he had this knack for taking things that were in legalese and putting them in plain English so that [agencies] could disseminate the information that needed to be disseminated and, ultimately, do the work that the federal government needed to do of keeping children safe,” Gurwitz said of Cohen.
Cohen continued this work throughout his entire career with the DOE and was posthumously honored with a tribute in The Washington Post.
“I think he is emblematic of the work that members of the civil service do day in and day out,” Gurwitz said. “And [Cohen has] been very much part of these stories. There’s so many stories to tell that this [initiative] feels like it could be so much bigger.”
The Museum is actively collecting artifacts, photographs and papers from Jewish federal workers, both in the past and the present. See instructions for donations at capitaljewishmuseum.org/donatetocollection.
