Your generosity will help us:
- Bring hundreds of local students through our doors each year to explore immigration, labor, foodways, and belonging
- Preserve and interpret the historic Reher Bakery, a rare surviving touchpoint to early- and mid-20th-century immigrant life in a neighborhood that was hit with urban renewal
- Present exhibitions and programs that uplift immigrant artists and Hudson Valley stories across generations
- Build community partnerships that make Kingston more inclusive, connected, and welcoming
At the Reher Center, we believe that the stories of immigrants are not relics of the past. Although we are a historic site we know immigrant stories are at the heart of our community and our country. Every day, our historic bakery reminds us that the promise of belonging must be renewed with each generation.
The Reher family, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, opened their bakery in 1908 to serve a growing immigrant neighborhood in Kingston. Through hard work and persistence, they created a home, a livelihood, and their bread nourished a diverse community. More than a century later, new immigrants arrive in the Hudson Valley facing familiar challenges: language barriers, housing insecurity, fear. We know they also come with hopes and dreams much like the Reher family.
At a time when immigrant communities across the country continue to face misunderstanding and exclusion, the Reher Center stands as a place of welcome and witness. Through our exhibitions, tours, school programs, and cultural events, we connect past and present, reminding visitors that the struggle for dignity and belonging is an American story still unfolding.
This year, we expanded our programs to reach more students, families, and neighbors than ever before. We preserved and interpreted the historic Reher Bakery, hosted immigrant artists whose work bridges continents, and created spaces where people of all backgrounds could meet and learn from one another.
We do this because the lessons of the past are urgent today. When a child on a school visit asks, “Why did they come here?”, they are really asking “Why do people still come here?” and “Will they be welcome?”
Your support makes it possible to answer those questions with compassion, history, and truth.
Please make a year-end gift to help us continue this vital work. Your contribution ensures that the Reher Center remains a historic site of inclusion and a place where immigrant stories are preserved, honored, and heard. Thanks to a generous supporter, every gift will be matched—up to $30,000—through the end of the year.
Together, we can build a future in which every person feels that they belong.
