Welcome to the Benjamin and Dr. Edgar R. Cofeld Museum!
Chana Revell Kotzin, Ph.D. Curator and Historian
I serve as the part-time Curator and Historian for the newly reimagined museum. I am deeply immersed in urban and ethnic history with a special interest in religious histories, and currently serve on the Religious History Committee of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).
After studying Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies with a college at the University of Oxford, UK, I completed a Ph.D. in History at the University of Southampton in the UK. I also hold a Small Museum Pro certificate from the AASLH as well as a World Art History Certificate from the Smithsonian. I am cross-trained in museum, archives and digital history. Beyond my work at the Cofeld Judaic Museum, I am an adjunct professor and public historian.
I have worked in a wide range of public history roles, including the Jewish Buffalo History Center and a decade-long post as Director of the Jewish Buffalo Archives Project (JBAP). This project established a unique repository of archival materials through a partnership with the Archives and Special Collections, at the University at Buffalo. Part of this work built an extensive archives of Temple Beth Zion archival materials at the University of Buffalo, University Archives. For work as part of this project I was awarded the Debra E. Bernhardt Award for Excellence in Documenting New York’s History.
I am the author of Jewish Community of Greater Buffalo (Arcadia, 2013), which features Temple Beth Zion archival materials. In addition, as the author of Jewish newspaper articles, scholarly journals, and special commissions, I have written about Temple Beth Zion’s history, and it’s museum collections.
Among other awards I received a Community Service Award for contributions to Western New York by Temple Beth Zion in 2014. I have served as an adjunct Professor at Daemen, Medaille Universities and currently William Jewell College. I am currently writing a history of Jewish Buffalo from 1950 to 2015 as a successor to Selig Adler and Thomas F. Connelly’s book: From Ararat to Suburbia: The History of the Jewish Community of Buffalo, published in 1960.
You can reach me at: museum@tbz.org
