Besa: Code of Honor Exhibition

Now-August 14, 2022

Exhibit featured in Tulsa, Oklahoma-The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, 2021 East 71^st Street. In 1933, Albania, a small and mountainous country on the southeast coast of the Balkan peninsula, was home to a population of 803,000. Of those only two hundred were Jews. After Hitler’s rise to power many Jews found refuge in Albania. No accurate figures exist regarding their number; however, different sources estimate that 600-1,800 Jewish refugees entered that country from Germany, Austria, Serbia, Greece and Yugoslavia, in the hope to continue on to the Land of Israel or other places of refuge. The remarkable assistance afforded to the Jews was grounded in Besa, a code of honor, which still today serves as the highest ethical code in the country. Besa means literally “to keep the promise.” One who acts according to Besa is someone who keeps his word, someone to whom one can trust one’s life and the lives of one’s family.

This exhibit is on loan from the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center and created by Yad Vashem, Israel.

The mission of Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is expressed in our founding principle: Remember the Past, Transform the Future. The Museum is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Holocaust by honoring the memories of those who were lost and by teaching universal lessons that combat hatred, prejudice, and indifference. The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center fulfills its mission through the exhibition, preservation, and interpretation of its collections; and through education programs and initiatives that foster the promotion of human rights and the elimination of genocide.

Established in 1953 by an act of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, is entrusted with the task of commemorating, documenting, researching and educating about the Holocaust: remembering the six million Jews murdered by the German Nazis and their collaborators, the destroyed Jewish communities, and the ghetto and resistance fighters; and honoring the Righteous Among the Nations who risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.

About the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art

The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art (SMMJA) and its collections have been a part of Tulsa for decades. It began in 1965 when a local synagogue brought a traveling exhibit, “Traditional Ceremonial Art,” from the Jewish Museum in New York to the Tulsa community.

In addition to its permanent Judaica and temporary exhibitions, the SMMJA also serves as the home to The Sanditen/Kaiser Holocaust Center, the Julius and Gertrude Livingston Oklahoma Jewish Archives, the Tulsa Jewish Genealogical Society, and the Markovitz Jewish Genealogy Study and Research Center. Furthermore, the SMMJA library serves as a research facility for those interested in Judaic studies, the holocaust and genealogy.

The mission of the SMMJA is to preserve and promote Jewish heritage, culture, history and community through art and education. The Museum achieves this through exhibitions and educational programs focusing on Jewish culture, history, and art. The Museum hopes people will come to understand and identify with the Jewish experience. From its humble beginnings in the lobby of Congregation B’nai Emunah, the museum has changed from being a repository of art and religious objects to an educational institution dedicated to the eradication of hate and to the promotion of understanding between the diverse cultures.

The SMMJA’s operating hours: Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Saturday, Noon – 5:00 p.m., Sunday, 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., 918-492-1818, www.jewishmuseumtulsa.org.