I am stepping down from the Museum...

This is a letter that I sent yesterday to the Museum community:

Dear Friends,

I write to share some news with you – I have decided to step down as Director & CEO of the Museum at the end of December.

After fifteen years, it is time to move on and pursue other activities, including a book project that details my involvement with the Josef Mengele investigation.

As I was reaching this decision, I had time to reflect on my tenure at the Museum. I thought of how the Robert M. Morgenthau Wing was the first new construction in Lower Manhattan following the great tragedy of 9/11. I thought of the Museum’s many award-winning exhibitions, about the hundreds of thousands of school kids who have been educated, and about the Museum’s smart and enriching cultural programming.

And most of all, I have savored the satisfaction that this institution has remained worthy of its mission to preserve and relate such an important history about Jewish life and heritage before, during, and after the Holocaust.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you all very much for your support of the Museum. This institution, dedicated to memory and hope, exists and thrives because of you – visitors, audiences, members, donors, gallery educators, volunteers, and everyone else who makes up our large and vibrant family.

I am honored that the Board will confer upon me the title of Director Emeritus and has asked me to remain as President of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, which is such an important affiliate of the Museum.

In the weeks ahead, Chairman Bruce Ratner and the Board will convene a search committee to seek my successor, and I have offered to assist in any way I can.

I am grateful for the remarkable opportunity to have served such a noble institution and to have had your support. I look forward to watching the Museum continue to grow and flourish in the years ahead.

With every good wish,


David G. Marwell, Ph.D.
Museum Director & CEO

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

NASDAQ Video Wall in Times Square

My remarks at the Closing Bell Ceremony at NASDAQ this afternoon:

Seventy years ago today, Allied forces entered the Auschwitz Concentration camp and discovered evidence of unparalleled crimes – crimes that would shock the conscience of the world and would forever change our notion of the power of humans beings to commit evil acts. 

Emerging from the ashes of Auschwitz were sparks of rebirth and evidence of the human spirit’s resilience and ability to rebuild life and community after great tragedy.  It is no accident that the birthrate among survivors, in displaced persons camps after the war, spiked, illustrating the exponential power of survival.

Although we commemorate the Holocaust every day at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan – honoring those who perished by celebrating their lives and legacies, we join the international community on this International Holocaust Remembrance Day and reflect on what was lost and honor those who survived.