After four years of renovations and fund-raising, New Jersey's first statewide Jewish museum will open Sunday, Dec. 9, in the balcony of Newark's historic Congregation Ahavas Sholom.

An opening exhibit, "L'Chaim: Celebrating the Highlights of 20th Century Jewish Life in New Jersey," will look at the range of Jewish life in the state, from silk workers in Paterson, to farmers in Vineland and other parts of southern New Jersey, to the utopian commune of Roosevelt.

The museum will open officially with a reception for donors at 11 a.m., then welcome in the general public at 2 p.m. with a Hanukka party. Admission is $10 in cash or a toy earmarked for a child in a Newark hospital.

"Our inaugural exhibit is showing the diversity of Jewish life in New Jersey. There is no one kind of Jew in New Jersey and the Jewish experience in New Jersey is quite varied," said Max Herman, a Bloomfield resident and veteran Ahavas Sholom member who gave NJ Jewish News a preview of the mounted artifacts five days before the museum's official debut.

The first display is scheduled to run through the High Holy Days in September 2008.

Although the exhibit occupies only one wall of the synagogue's second floor, Herman anticipates an expansion of its artifacts and facilities.

"We'll be having art exhibitions, cultural events, and poetry readings here. This is a start for us, but it is an important start. We are positioning ourselves to be the Jewish museum of New Jersey. As modest as this is, I don't think we've ever had an exhibit that attempts to cover the broad sweep of Jewish experience throughout the state."

After its debut, the museum will be free of charge and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays or by special appointment. Last year the synagogue, at 145 Broadway, celebrated its 100th anniversary as the city's oldest continually operating shul.

Herman hopes the facility will have broad appeal.

"If this museum was just for Jewish people we would not be satisfied," he said. "What we want to do is reach out to the people who go to the churches in our neighborhood and be a resource for the community in the spirit of tikun olam."