Holocaust Museum Houston Presents: 'I'll Have What She's Having': The Jewish Deli

“I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish Deli is on view at Holocaust Museum Houston May 5 through Aug. 13, 2023. 

Holocaust Museum Houston (HMH) will bring “I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish Deli, an exhibition that explores how American Jews imported traditions, adapted culture, and built community through the experience of food, to the city known for its diverse cuisine. “I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish Deli will be on view in the Museum’s Josef and Edith Mincberg Gallery from May 5 through August 13, 2023.

In addition to showing how the Jewish deli forged an entirely new, quintessentially American cuisine by combining Central and Eastern European dishes with ingredients abundantly available in the United States, the exhibition traces the larger arc of the Jewish experience in the US during the twentieth century. On view will be neon signs, menus, advertisements, fixtures, film and television clips, and historical footage and artifacts that illuminate how delicatessens evolved from specialty stores catering to immigrant populations into the beloved national institutions they are today. 

The exhibition is organized into eight different sections that explore the food of Jewish immigration, Jewish deli cuisine, the midcentury growth of American Jewish culture, interactive stations, the people who own and work at delis, how immigrant-owned delis and their foods were woven into the urban American landscape, Holocaust survivor communities and how the Jewish deli has impacted pop culture. The immersive exhibition will also feature artifacts and photographs from the private collection of Houston’s own “deli man,” Ziggy Gruber of Kenny & Ziggy’s New York Delicatessen. 

Special events are being planned for later in the summer including a pickle-making workshop and a special film screening of Deli Man, directed by Erik Anjou and starring Jerry Stiller, Larry King, and Ziggy Gruber. 

“I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish Deli was organized by the Skirball Cultural Center, and co-curated by Skirball curators Cate Thurston and Laura Mart, and Lara Rabinovitch, renowned writer and producer, and specialist in immigrant food cultures.
“I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish Deli will be on view in the Museum’s Josef and Edith Mincberg Gallery, May 5 through August 13, 2023. For more information, visit hmh.org/Deli.

Holocaust Museum Houston graciously thanks Partner Sponsors Texas Capital Bank and Rhona and Bruce Caress; Title Sponsor Berg Hospitality Group; Lead Sponsor Martin Foods.

Holocaust Museum Houston, Lester and Sue Smith Campus, is fully bilingual in English and Spanish. Located at 5401 Caroline Street, HMH is closed Mondays except Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. The Museum’s Legacy Café is open during Museum hours. Admission is $22 for adults; $16 for seniors (ages 65+) and AARP members and active-duty military; always free for children and students through age 18; and free to all visitors with new extended hours Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. through August, with free hours 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays May 5, July 13 and August 31, 2023. Parking is available at the Museum’s adjacent lot for $8 for a four-hour period. Tickets are available exclusively online. For more information, visit hmh.org/visit.