The Hebrew Home at Riverdale is a nonprofit, non-sectarian geriatric center serving more than 3,000 elderly persons through its resources and community service programs. As a member of the American Association of Museums, the Hebrew Home is also committed to displaying its art collection for both the general public as well as its older adult residents. The 19-acre facility is home to the Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale - a fine art collection, Judaica museum and outdoor sculpture gard... Read more

The Hebrew Home at Riverdale is a nonprofit, non-sectarian geriatric center serving more than 3,000 elderly persons through its resources and community service programs. As a member of the American Association of Museums, the Hebrew Home is also committed to displaying its art collection for both the general public as well as its older adult residents.

The 19-acre facility is home to the Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale – a fine art collection, Judaica museum and outdoor sculpture garden overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades that features work by such artists as Herbert Ferber, Joel Perlman and Menashe Kadishman.

The Art Collection is comprised of more than 4,500 paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, prints and works on paper by such artists as Salvador Dali, Alex Katz, Joan Mitchell and Andy Warhol. These works are exhibited throughout the main public spaces of the Hebrew Home and elucidated by text panels and labels. Changing exhibitions are also mounted in the Elma and Milton A. Gilbert Pavilion Gallery, and feature works of art on loan from artists, museums and galleries throughout the United States. The exhibitions range from group shows in diverse forms of media to a major outdoor sculpture invitational.

The Judaica Museum was founded in 1982 when Riverdale residents Ralph and Leuba Baum donated their collection of Jewish ceremonial art to the Hebrew Home. A refugee from Nazi persecution, Ralph and his wife, Leuba, had an intense desire to preserve and pass on to future generations the memory embodied in the objects they collected, the majority of which were used by European Jews before the Holocaust. In 2008 The Judaica Museum was named in honor of its benefactors, the late Helen and Harold Derfner. It opened in a newly furnished space in June 2009 with an ongoing exhibition of the permanent collection entitled, “Tradition and Remembrance: Treasures of the Derfner Judaica Museum,” that explores the intersections of Jewish history and memory. The Museum also features a rotating gallery space for modern art relating to Jewish life and culture.

The Hebrew Home is also a center for a diverse schedule of programming, including opening receptions for contemporary art exhibitions, lectures organized with such organizations as the New York Council for the Humanities and the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning, and lectures with speakers such as artist Tobi Kahn and contemporary Judaica designer Studio Armadillo.