[1][2][3][4][5][6] Through exhibits, collections, and programs focused on the history of Southern Jews, the museum encourages new understanding and appreciation for identity, diversity, and acceptance.

The museum served as a clearinghouse and information center supporting the preservation of Jewish culture in the South, particularly in smaller towns, which were rapidly diminishing in size, as younger generations moved to larger urban areas.

Gallery Three includes exhibits about how Southern Jews reacted to the Holocaust, oral histories of Holocaust survivors who immigrated to the South, the Civil Rights movement, and the changing demographics of the Southern Jewish experience over time.

[16] They include a state-by-state exploration of the museum's collection and an interactive quilt-making table that allows visitors to design an electronic quilt square representing their identity.

Items on display include a Jewish soldier's Civil War diary, a steamer trunk used by a Jewish immigrant who entered the United States through Galveston, Texas, a wedding dress worn at a Jewish wedding in New Orleans in 1895, and the c. 1956 cash register from the original Stein Mart, in Greenville, MS.[7] The Museum continues to collect artifacts from the thirteen states it represents.