Kid's Activity Center Returns To Maltz Museum

BEACHWOOD, OH — The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is bringing back the Everyday Heroes Activity Center, an installation geared toward younger audiences.

The Everyday Heroes Activity Center was a popular attraction for the museum in 2018 and is being brought back for visiting children. The center will be housed in the museum's special exhibition gallery space.

Children will be able to discover "everyday" superpowers in the exhibit, powers like kindness, compassion, listening and helping through hands-on activities. Young families can explore all the values of being an everyday hero using activities like Painting Kindness Rocks or Building a Better World Lego Station.

“In each of us, there is a hero. Inside, we are strong enough, brave enough, and courageous enough to make choices that lift others up. Sometimes, we must even lift ourselves up first so that we can help someone else," said David Schafer, managing director of the Maltz Museum.

The Everyday Heroes Activity Center will be open during regular museum hours, June 4 through August 18.

Children will also be able to take part in a variety of stations at the activity center, including:

• Making their own capes and masks
• Zooming around the good mood movement area
• Puppet theater

There will also be a self-guided, hands-on tour using a new children's book to explore the museum's core exhibition, An American Story. Families can discover the heroic qualities of a family moving to a new country.

The Maltz Museum is also partnering with the Bellefaire Jewish Children's Bureau in commemoration of that institution's 150th anniversary. There will be shared, thematic programming at the museum and audiences of all ages will be invited to join in.

Upcoming commemoration activities for Bellefaire and the Maltz Museum will include the screening of a documentary film, lectures and panel discussions on compassionate living, performances on healing through humor and expression and gallery talks on exploring Jewish Cleveland heroes.

“There will be something for everyone,” Schafer said. “Now is the time to support diversity and inclusion. Now is the time to be an everyday hero.”