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.

September 11th



The new Freedom Tower alongside the Tribute of Light

This is a repost of a piece I did for the London Jewish Chronicle last year:

The World Trade Center was an anchor for our neighborhood, a north star to help one navigate the warrens of New York’s streets, a beacon for all who could catch a glimpse of its twin towers.  The date of its destruction is a similar anchor to the calendar, a fixed point against which we measure our growth.  As we gain distance from that day, pixelated images and inchoate impressions have found a measure of coherence, hardened to memory. 

 Our Museum is located just a few blocks south of the World Trade Center site, and, on 9/11, we were engulfed by the giant cloud of dust and smoke and ash that emanated from the collapsed buildings.  Our colleagues on that day found their way by foot and ferry to safer ground, but were forever marked by their shared experience.  Located in the “frozen zone,” our neighborhood was sealed off and inaccessible in the days and weeks following the attacks.  When first allowed to return to the building, we discovered that the roof was covered with scorched scraps of paper – artifacts of commonplace pursuits -- carried there by the currents of catastrophe. 

Following the attacks, we were faced with the daunting task of rebuilding.  Although we suffered no significant physical damage, our collective sense of well-being and confidence were shattered.  The Museum family was spared direct loss, but each member of the staff who witnessed the attack and its aftermath was changed.  I was in Berlin on 9/11 at the opening of the Jewish Museum and returned Erev Rosh Hashanah to find my apartment uninhabitable and my colleagues, each in their own way, responding to their collective and individual traumas.   I had lunch with the Museum’s chairman, Robert Morgenthau, a week or so after my return, and he told me to get the Museum open again as soon as possible.  I responded that it would be difficult since we were locked down by roadblocks and surrounded by armed guards.  “I’ll take care of the roadblocks,” he said, “you get the Museum cleaned and ready.” He also instructed me to continue with our plans to build a major expansion to our building. 

Although I did not voice them, I had many misgivings.  It struck me as imprudent at that moment to commit scores of millions of dollars to a major building effort in a grievously wounded neighborhood, the future of which was uncertain.  But I followed his instructions, and we reopened the Museum on October 5^th and broke ground for the expansion in November.

Ours was the first new construction project in Lower Manhattan following 9/11, and we were warmed by this distinction, which held a particular resonance since our Core Exhibition focuses, in part, on the period following the Holocaust, with its dramatic story of the rebirth of life and community following great tragedy.  There were days when trucks conveying new steel for our construction mixed in traffic with trucks transporting twisted relics of steel away from Ground Zero.  This jarring juxtaposition in the noisy street presented a potent metaphor for the continuity of life and the impulse to rebuild.

Our new wing opened on the second anniversary of 9/11, finally completing the original vision of the Museum, providing a magnificent building permitting us to offer, finally, a full range of exhibitions and programming.   Although more people can fit in my dining room at home than visited us each day during the period immediately following our reopening, visitation has since rebounded, and downtown is booming once again with new amenities and the promise of a bright future.  On the first Yahrzeit of 9/11 (23^rd of Elul), we opened a remarkably moving and inspiring exhibition about 9/11 focusing on our neighborhood and on the Jewish community, and we mark the anniversary each year with a memorial candle in our lobby and a commemorative program in our theater.

Since 9/11, we have experienced our share of natural disasters – two hurricanes (Irene and Super Storm Sandy) and even a mild earthquake.  The disruption caused by these events, and their undeniable emotional impact, reminded us all of that September morning when the norms of everyday life were suddenly upturned, and the stabilizing anchors of our lives were dislodged.  But the waters subsided and the earth stopped shaking, and we were left again to face a world that was so unalterably changed 12 years ago.

Auschwitz Jewish Center



Wolf Blitzer Visits Auschwitz Jewish Center

Wolf Blitzer recently visited our Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oświęcim. The institution he visited has changed dramatically over the past year.  Among the changes are a brand new permanent exhibition, which chronicles Jewish life in Oświęcim, and Café Bergson, which occupies the Kluger house, the home to the last Jewish resident of Oswiecim.  This beautifully designed  and rebuilt structure pays respect to its past incarnation and to the people who lived there. Café Bergson has been nominated for an award by a design magazine in Poland, and I urge you to vote for it (just scroll down the page...).

Upcoming Program

I called John Judis Friday afternoon and invited him to join me at the Museum for a public discussion of his new book, Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origin of the Arab/Israeli Conflict.  Readers of the Forward, and some recent blogs, may very well be surprised by this statement. They might ask, didn’t you just disinvite him? What’s going on? Here is what happened:  Our public programs department asked me to evaluate Judis’s book for a possible public program.  I reviewed it and concluded that we should take a pass as we do with dozens of books that are pitched to us each season.  My reading suggested that the book was less a thoughtful history of Truman’s actions in relation to the establishment of the State of Israel and more a book about what Judis suggests was, and is, the pernicious impact of American Zionist and pro-Israel influence on American policy (and policy-makers) up to the present day.  The tone of the book (“The British and the Zionists had conspired to screw the Arabs out of a country….” p. 251) raised concerns as well, and my conclusion was that the proposed program would produce more heat than light. I told my staff that I thought we should skip this one.  I later learned that my staff then rescinded an invitation to Mr. Judis, which they had, unfortunately, already extended without my knowledge.   

 

Of course, rescinding an invitation (even one that I was unaware of) is a far different matter than simply not extending one in the first place.  It naturally raises the ugly specter of succumbing to pressure and giving in to outside influence.  I have worked very hard over the years to avoid precisely the kind of mess that we found ourselves in, and I am particularly concerned that the Museum should be accused of censorship or of being allergic to controversy.  As a result, we decided to schedule (or reschedule) the program with Judis, this time with me as the interviewer.  This format will give me an opportunity to raise with him the very questions that gave me pause in the first place, and I look forward to discussing these important issues with him.  Please join us on June 1^st.

UN Secretary General Visits Auschwitz Jewish Center

UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon at our Center

 

We were honored to receive a visit from the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, at our Auschwitz Jewish Center.  Here is the note he left in our guest book:

 

 



9/11



View of 9/11 Towers of Light Memorial from My Apartment

 

I submitted the following comment on 9/11 to the London Jewish Chronicle, which published a version of it in their September 4th issue:

The World Trade Center was an anchor for our neighborhood, a north star to help one navigate the warrens of New York’s streets, a beacon for all who could catch a glimpse of its twin towers.  The date of its destruction is a similar anchor to the calendar, a fixed point against which we measure our growth.  As we gain distance from that day, pixelated images and inchoate impressions have found a measure of coherence, hardened to memory. 

 Our Museum is located just a few blocks south of the World Trade Center site, and, on 9/11, we were engulfed by the giant cloud of dust and smoke and ash that emanated from the collapsed buildings.  Our colleagues on that day found their way by foot and ferry to safer ground, but were forever marked by their shared experience.  Located in the “frozen zone,” our neighborhood was sealed off and inaccessible in the days and weeks following the attacks.  When first allowed to return to the building, we discovered that the roof was covered with scorched scraps of paper – artifacts of commonplace pursuits -- carried there by the currents of catastrophe. 

Following the attacks, we were faced with the daunting task of rebuilding.  Although we suffered no significant physical damage, our collective sense of well-being and confidence were shattered.  The Museum family was spared direct loss, but each member of the staff who witnessed the attack and its aftermath was changed.  I was in Berlin on 9/11 at the opening of the Jewish Museum and returned Erev Rosh Hashanah to find my apartment uninhabitable and my colleagues, each in their own way, responding to their collective and individual traumas.   I had lunch with the Museum’s chairman, Robert Morgenthau, a week or so after my return, and he told me to get the Museum open again as soon as possible.  I responded that it would be difficult since we were locked down by roadblocks and surrounded by armed guards.  “I’ll take care of the roadblocks,” he said, “you get the Museum cleaned and ready.” He also instructed me to continue with our plans to build a major expansion to our building. 

Although I did not voice them, I had many misgivings.  It struck me as imprudent at that moment to commit scores of millions of dollars to a major building effort in a grievously wounded neighborhood, the future of which was uncertain.  But I followed his instructions, and we reopened the Museum on October 5^th and broke ground for the expansion in November.

Ours was the first new construction project in Lower Manhattan following 9/11, and we were warmed by this distinction, which held a particular resonance since our Core Exhibition focuses, in part, on the period following the Holocaust, with its dramatic story of the rebirth of life and community following great tragedy.  There were days when trucks conveying new steel for our construction mixed in traffic with trucks transporting twisted relics of steel away from Ground Zero.  This jarring juxtaposition in the noisy street presented a potent metaphor for the continuity of life and the impulse to rebuild.

Our new wing opened on the second anniversary of 9/11, finally completing the original vision of the Museum, providing a magnificent building permitting us to offer, finally, a full range of exhibitions and programming.   Although more people can fit in my dining room at home than visited us each day during the period immediately following our reopening, visitation has since rebounded, and downtown is booming once again with new amenities and the promise of a bright future.  On the first Yahrzeit of 9/11 (23^rd of Elul), we opened a remarkably moving and inspiring exhibition about 9/11 focusing on our neighborhood and on the Jewish community, and we mark the anniversary each year with a memorial candle in our lobby and a commemorative program in our theater.

Since 9/11, we have experienced our share of natural disasters – two hurricanes (Irene and Super Storm Sandy) and even a mild earthquake.  The disruption caused by these events, and their undeniable emotional impact, reminded us all of that September morning when the norms of everyday life were suddenly upturned, and the stabilizing anchors of our lives were dislodged.  But the waters subsided and the earth stopped shaking, and we were left again to face a world that was so unalterably changed 12 years ago.