The Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Manhattan is seeking a donation of a prewar wedding canopy (chuppah) or prayer shawl (tallit), that was used as a wedding canopy.

The first floor of the museum’s core exhibition explores Jewish life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Personal artifacts and family photographs accompanied by documentary films provide an emotional component to the exhibition.

The beginning of the exhibition highlights several life cycle events that are important to Jewish life, with the wedding being one of them. The wedding display features clothing worn by a bride and groom under a canopy. The museum’s current canopy, on loan from a private collection, will be taken off exhibit temporarily to be used at the wedding of a grandchild of the lender. This happy event reinvigorates the museum’s search for a canopy of its own, and reinforces its message as a living memorial and museum.

If you have an item to donate or know of a congregation or individual who might, contact Esther Brumberg at (646) 437-4248 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

The annual Epson World of Underwater Images Competition will be held in Eilat, Israel, from Nov. 14 to 19. Professional and amateur photographers are invited to submit images taken underwater in any natural water source around the world, including seas, oceans, lakes and rivers, as part of the Epson World ShootOut, from Aug. 1 to 8. The ShootOut competition includes seven categories — dive destination, wide angle, macro and super-macro, fresh water, ship or plane wreckage (black and white), underwater conservation, and amateur. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Eilat Nov. 19.

See www.worldshootout.org andwww.eilatredsea.com for information.

The programs and events committee of the Fair Lawn Jewish Center/Cong. B’nai Israel hosts a trip to the new National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia Sunday, Aug. 7. It costs $55 per person for members, $50 for those 12 and under, and $65 for non-members, and includes travel on a luxury bus with restroom, museum admission, group tour, kosher boxed lunch, and a private meeting room. Bus will leave the center at 8:30 a.m. Reservations are due as soon as possible and will not be accepted without payment. Call Carol at (201) 796-2950 or the office, (201) 796-5040.

The National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia will be open on Monday, July 4, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Among the activities at the museum, in Independence Mall, will be self-guided tours exploring Revolutionary War-era artefacts and docent presentations of a letter written by George Washington.

Normally closed on Mondays, the museum is opening on July 4 to participate in the city’s Welcome America! programs and to allow visitors to the museum to explore how the Jewish experience is intertwined with American history. Visitors who become a museum member over the July 4 weekend will receive a tee shirt and other membership benefits. Call (215) 923-3811 or www.NMAJH.org.

For millennia, students have pored over the written word to study and reflect on Jewish life and values. Now almost everyone seems to have a digital camera, so why not use imagery to add a vivid dimension to those studies?

That was the thinking of Zion Ozeri six years ago when he founded Jewish Lens, a program to use photography to enhance the awareness of Israel, the Jewish community, and the environment.

The result of Ozeri’s insight can be sampled in the lobby of the Jewish Home at Rockleigh, where slices of Jewish life are depicted in photos by students in the Jewish Lens program at Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County and the Bergen County High School of Jewish studies.

Jerusalem Shuk, a monoprint/collage by Miriam Stern.

The Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville in southern New Jersey presents “Gleanings: Works by Matrix,” a mixed media exhibition through Sept. 4. Exhibiting artists include Miriam Stern of Teaneck, Harriet Finck of Ridgewood, and Leslie Nobler of Little Falls. For information, call (609) 652-8848 or www.noyesmuseum.org.

Shamayim (sky) 40” x 94,” acrylic on museum board (triptych) by Harriet Finck.

Pastel, “Destiny I,” 16 x 20, by Rachelle Weisberger.

Rachelle Weisberger of Englewood will exhibit her pastels at the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden in Westchester County from June 22 to Sept. 12 as part of a group show, “The Heart of the Artist.” The New York Society of Women Artists, a professional association of painters, sculptors, and graphic artists, where Weisberger is a board member, sponsors the exhibit.

Weisberger is a member of The East Hill Synagogue and an associate member of Cong. Ahavat Torah, both in Englewood. A lifelong supporter of Israel, she is affiliated with Amit, Emunah, and Hadassah. Call (914) 669-5033 or www.hammondmuseum.org.

Comics tell every possible story,” said Neal Adams, a legend in the comics industry whose illustrations of Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow have defined modern interpretations of those characters. “They can tell history, they can tell physics. We’re just now realizing the value of putting pictures with words.”

Adams knows the value of putting pictures with words, and not just to entertain but also as an educational tool. He has teamed up with Disney Educational Productions and the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies to produce “They Spoke Out: American Voices Against the Holocaust,” a series of 10 motion comics telling the heroic stories of those who stood up against the Nazis during the Holocaust. Adams and Rafael Medoff, director of the Wyman Institute, spoke on a panel at last month’s Big Apple Comic Con in New York City about the project and screened “Messenger from Hell,” which told the story of Jan Karski.