Philadelphia’s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History could join the Smithsonian museum network. The museum was founded in 1976 and is currently a Smithsonian affiliate. As an affiliate, it can borrow from the Smithsonian’s collections and draw on its resources. The museum regularly programs exhibitions, as well as housing a core collection covering Jewish history dating back to the 1600s, “when the first permanent Jewish settlers came to the New World from Brazil.”
The chance for the Weitzman to join the network dates back to legislation from 2024, passed during the Biden administration, that created a congressional commission to study the transfer. Adding new members to the Smithsonian often takes decades. The most recent additions to the network are the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. Both were long in the works.
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In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Weitzman CEO Dan Tadmor said that joining the Smithsonian would improve the institution’s education mission. “We have a national footprint for our educational programming, but of course we’d like to widen it,” he said. “Who would say no to a curriculum that’s been developed by a Smithsonian museum?” Philip Darivoff, a former chair of the institution who now chairs the commission, said that the Weitzman joining the Smithsonian is “a different statement that our country makes when it says that the study of Jewish American history and culture is important to this nation.”
“The Smithsonian is a really important institution for this country, and it is the great museum complex of our nation,” Darivoff added. “God willing, it will be flourishing for centuries to come. It’d be an honor to be included in the Smithsonian.”