The Museum is dedicated to the preservation, research, and exhibition of art, archival materials, and artifacts of the Jews and Judaism in Oregon.

[citation needed] In 1996, the Museum merged with the Jewish History Society of Oregon and acquired their archives, comprising major collections of organizational records, family papers, photographs and ephemeral materials dating from 1850 to the present—the largest collection of the documented and visual history of Oregon's Jews.

[3] When OJM left Montgomery Park in October 2000, the museum moved to a storefront location elsewhere in Northwest Portland.

Within five months, the board raised funds for the architectural makeover of the former commercial film building and the museum opened to the public on December 20, 2009.

In June 2017 the museum changed locations to 724 NW Davis Street and upsized to a 15,000 square foot building.