A new traveling exhibit is on display at the Fort Miles Museum from Memorial Day through Veterans Day.

The “Dear Mollye” Collection includes letters and artifacts sent to Mollye Sklut, office manager of the YM & YWHA, by nearly 350 Jewish World War II services members from Wilmington, Delaware. Mollye shared their correspondence in the local Y Recorder, distributing news locally and to those serving around the world.

These morale-boosting letters connected the home front and the battlefront for families, friends, and service members eager for news of one another. Service members wrote about training and combat, Jewish life in the military, racism and antisemitism, the Holocaust, and the loss of friends. Together, their words revel a close-knit community sustained by shared memory, support, and connection.

Group of Jewish men in traditional clothing posing in a camp with large tents in the background; caption reads 'Voices of Service from the Jewish Community'

Step into the stories of Delaware’s Jewish American service members – through artifacts, oral histories, and letters from the “Dear Mollye” Collection and local veteran families.

Presented by the Jewish Historical Society of Delaware (JHSD), preserving Delaware’s Jewish history since 1974.

Jewish Historical Society of Delaware: Voices of Service