In the Neighborhood: Everyday Life on Hastings Street

The Robert and Mary Ann Bury Community Gallery is a changing exhibition space made available to local historical societies, museums, non-profit organizations and educational institutions, selected for their contributions to the metro Detroit community. Organizations are featured in order to share their stories and provide new perspectives on the issues, ideas and individuals that have shaped our region’s rich history.

It was officially renamed as a tribute to retiring long-time Executive Director Bob Bury and dedicated in a ceremony on November 1, 2018.   

Our Community Gallery program received the 2020 Leadership in History Award from the American Association for State and Local History! Learn more 

OPENING ON APRIL 20, 2024 in the Robert and Mary Ann Bury Community Gallery

In the Neighborhood: Everyday Life on Hastings Street takes visitors on a walk back in history to Hastings Street’s time from 1880-1930 as an enclave for Detroit’s Jewish immigrants, where everyday life was full of the choices, adversities, innovations, triumphs, tensions, and synergies that defined this incomparable place.

Prior to 1930, Hastings Street, which later became a center for Black culture and commerce, was home to many immigrants, including working-class Jews who fled Eastern Europe driven by the terror and violence of antisemitism. This new exhibit, presented by Jewish Historical Society of Michigan, follows Jewish immigrants’ experiences from Europe to Detroit to Hastings Street. A fascinating blend of artifacts and storytelling gives visitors a rare peek into Jewish life of the period.

Exhibition-related programs

May 5 | 1-3pm FAMILY PROGRAM "Scrap-enger Hunt"

May 5 | 2:30-4pm LECTURE "Kosher Meat Riot of 1910" Catherine Cangany, PhD

May 16 | 6:30-8pm PANEL DISCUSSION "Black Bottom & I-375: Past, Present, and Future"

June 20 | 6:30-8pm FILM SCREENING "Uncle Moses"

June 30 | 1-3pm FAMILY PROGRAM "Shopping for Shabbat"

June 30 | 2:30-4pm LECTURE "Schlussel Bathhouse Archaeology" Julia DiLaura

July 11 | 6:30-8pm PANEL DISCUSSION "Immigration Past & Present"

Jewish Historical Society of Michigan is an independent non-profit organization that interprets and highlights the Jewish history of Michigan, capturing and sharing the past with its communities, state, nation, and the world, producing academic-quality historical knowledge and offering meaningful and engaging programming. It offers innovative, docent-led lectures, tours, and classroom lessons and publishes Michigan Jewish History, our annual, peer-reviewed journal.