Council of American Jewish Museums

What Council of American Jewish Museums does

The Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM) is a private nonprofit membership association that serves as the primary professional network for Jewish museums and museum professionals across North America. Its institutional base spans more than fifty communities, including flagship members such as The Jewish Museum (New York), the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Skirball Cultural Center, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Yiddish Book Center, the Capital Jewish Museum, the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, the Anne Frank House, and the Center for Jewish History. CAJM reaches members through its website (cajm.net), a monthly newsletter, a News of Note blog, social media channels, biweekly Virtual Talking Circles, and an annual conference (2026 edition in Detroit).

CAJM's core technology layer is a shared oral history methodology and a trial deployment of the TheirStory platform (theirstory.io), which member organizations use to ethically collect and preserve stories of contemporary Jewish experiences for eventual museum archiving. The methodology was originally seeded in 2020 by the Chronicling Funder Collaborative, backed by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and The Russell Berrie Foundation. CAJM also stewards the Reciprocal Admissions Program, under which members at the $150+ tier receive free admission at 14+ named partner museums.

The organization's revenue model is a hybrid of recurring membership dues (Institutional and Individual tiers), one-time annual conference registration fees, and voluntary donations collected via PayPal. Governance is by a board of directors (current Immediate Past Chair: Susan Bronson, Executive Director of the Yiddish Book Center) and led by an Interim Executive Director, Anne Hromadka Greenwald, appointed in September 2025 following Christine Beresniova. CAJM has co-stewarded federal-level convenings with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) as part of the White House's U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, and jointly published a December 2024 field report with the Association of European Jewish Museums (AEJM).

Name

Council of American Jewish Museums

Legal name

Council of American Jewish Museums

Website

https://cajm.net

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM) is a U.S.-based nonprofit membership association serving more than fifty Jewish museums across North America through conferences, Virtual Talking Circles, a Reciprocal Admissions Program, a shared oral history methodology, and field advocacy on countering antisemitism.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Museum Professional Association Services

NAICS

Business Associations (813910), Professional Organizations (813920)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Cultural Centers & Community Cultural Organizations (BPAGAHAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Scholarly Societies & Conference Proceedings Publishing (MPAJABAK)

Keywords

• Museum professional network
• Membership association services
• Annual conference events
• Oral history methodology
• Cultural institution advocacy

Headquarters

HQ city

Jackson

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: CAJM operates as a membership-based organization with Institutional Members and Individual Members. Higher-level members ($150+ minimum) qualify for the Reciprocal Admissions Program benefits.
2. Donations: CAJM solicits donations through PayPal to support the organization's mission of strengthening and inspiring Jewish museums. The organization emphasizes continued work moving forward with partners and allies.
3. Conference Revenue: Registration fees for the annual CAJM Conference, with the 2026 Conference being held in Detroit.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

CAJM is a nonprofit membership association that serves Jewish museums and museum professionals across North America. It delivers services through institutional and individual memberships, an annual conference, monthly Virtual Talking Circles, a Reciprocal Admissions Program across member institutions, and shared oral history methodology supported by the TheirStory platform. The organization also produces publications, advocacy resources, and field response initiatives addressing antisemitism and cultural heritage preservation.

Product overview

The Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM) is a membership network organization for American Jewish museums, not a technology product company. CAJM provides programs and services including conferences, publications, career opportunities listings, a monthly newsletter, reciprocal admissions program, oral history methodology sharing, and educational initiatives addressing antisemitism. The organization connects museum professionals across more than fifty communities in North America and beyond, offering programming such as Virtual Talking Circles, Countering Antisemitism resources, and Field Notes publications.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CAJM Membership (Institutional and Individual) Annual membership providing Jewish museums and museum professionals with access to CAJM programming, networking, advocacy resources, and the Reciprocal Admissions Program.
• Reciprocal Admissions Program Reciprocal free admission benefit at 14+ participating member museums for CAJM members at the $150 or higher membership level.
• Annual CAJM Conference Annual conference bringing together Jewish museum professionals for networking, learning, and field updates, with paid registration.
• Virtual Talking Circles Recurring virtual community discussions for members held every 1st and 3rd Thursdays, covering topics relevant to the Jewish museum field.
• Oral History Platform Trial Trial access to CAJM's oral history platform for member organizations to collect and preserve contemporary Jewish community stories.

Named customers9 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Association of European Jewish Museums (AEJM)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2024CAJM and AEJM conducted a joint survey on antisemitism in summer 2024, releasing a report titled 'American & European Jewish Museums Since October 7, 2023: Impressions from a Survey Conducted by Two Collegial Networks' in December 2024.
• Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCAJM partnered with IMLS for a two-day Summit titled 'Museums Respond: Strategies for Countering Antisemitism and Hate,' which was part of the White House's U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.
• TheirStorycoreTechnology or IntegrationCAJM uses the TheirStory platform (theirstory.io) for online oral history interviewing. CAJM provides guidance and start-up tools to participating member organizations for collecting contemporary Jewish experiences.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC): International membership association for science centers and museums with similar conference-centric, dues-funded model. Comparable in scale and operations, though focused on STEM-focused institutions.
• National Art Education Association (NAEA): Membership association for art educators with conferences, publications, and advocacy. Comparable scale and revenue mix (membership, conference, donations), though its constituents are educators rather than museums.
• American Alliance of Museums (AAM): Largest U.S. museum membership association serving all museum types. Directly comparable as a fee-paying, conference-driven professional association for museums, though it operates at much larger scale and serves a broader category than CAJM's Jewish-museum niche.
• International Council of Museums (ICOM): Global museum membership network with national committees. Highly comparable as an umbrella museum association, but operates at global scale and engages in standards-setting that CAJM does not.
• American Association for State and Local History (AASLH): U.S. membership association for history organizations with annual conference, field publications, and member services. Comparable revenue model (dues, conference, grants) and advocacy role, but broader historical scope.
• American Historical Association (AHA): U.S.-based scholarly society with membership dues, annual meeting, publications, and advocacy. Comparable as a professional association model though academic-research focused rather than museum-practice focused.

Direct peers

• Association of European Jewish Museums (AEJM): Direct European counterpart to CAJM for Jewish museums. CAJM and AEJM co-published a 2024 antisemitism survey, making AEJM the closest peer—same mission, similar membership and conference model, but regional/geographic focus on Europe.
• Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD): Membership organization for art museum directors with conference, advocacy, and professional programming. Highly comparable structure (dues, conferences, publications) though its scope is art-museum leadership rather than Jewish-heritage museums.
• Association of Children's Museums (ACM): Mid-sized U.S. membership association for a specific museum sub-vertical with very similar programming (annual conference, publications, peer networking, advocacy). Closest analog by scale and member-base composition.

Others

• TheirStory: Technology partner whose oral history platform powers CAJM's oral history program. Comparable as an enabler/integrator in the CAJM member offering stack rather than a competing membership association.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/council-of-american-jewish-museums

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Council of American Jewish Museums