A refugee from Nazi persecution, Ralph Baum (1907–1984) and his wife, Leuba (d. 1997),[3] had an intense desire to preserve and pass on to future generations the memory embodied in the objects they collected, the majority of which were used primarily by European Jews before the Holocaust.

The Derfner Judaica Museum was established in 1982 and relocated to a new space with a capital grant funded by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs on June 11, 2009 to favorable reviews.

[4] The Museum, designed by architect Louise Braverman,[5] occupies a newly expanded 5,000-square-foot (460 m2) exhibition space in the Jacob Reingold Pavilion at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale.

[4] Other objects relating to Jewish practice come from near and far, including a set of 18th-century German Torah implements from Meerholz Germany and a velvet fish-scale embroidered matzah cover from turn-of-the-century Jerusalem.

[8] One of the more unusual exhibitions at the museum was a show entitled "Culture as Commodity" that offered a variety of Judaica-related items, including Israeli Coca-Cola T-shirts, that were purchased from eBay and other Internet auction sites.