After Criticism, Academy Museum Will Highlight Hollywood’s Jews


LOS ANGELES — The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, a 300,000-square-foot tribute to Hollywood, was lauded when it opened here last fall for honoring the contributions of women, artists and artists of color in an industry that was historically dominated by white men. People from many backgrounds have made filming a fundamental American art form.

“We want to make sure that we look at our history from an honest, inclusive and diverse perspective, creating a safe space for complex, challenging conversations,” the museum director said. Bill Kramer said the day after the museum opened welcomed the guests Participated in a panel discussion titled “Creating a More Inclusive Museum”.

But in this first celebration of diversity and inclusion, one group was clearly missing: Jewish immigrants—all white men—who were at the center of building the Hollywood studio system. Among the dozens of exhibits and rooms, hardly any mention is made of Harry and Jack Warner, Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn or Louis B. Mayer, just to list a few of the best-known names in Hollywood history.

neglect, which emerged at a time when concerns about rising antisemitism It soon received complaints from Jewish leaders across the country, concern from supporters of the new museum, and a series of critical articles. rolling rock and nextHe published an article titled “Jews built Hollywood”. So why is their history being erased from the Academy’s new museum?”

“I was there on opening night: I was shocked by the absence of Jews in the Hollywood story,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, president of the Anti-Defamation League, a group that tracks antisemitism and hate crimes.

Now museum officials say that will change.

Bustling with grievances, the museum plans to open a new permanent exhibition next spring dedicated to the origins of Hollywood and the lives and contributions of the Jewish studio founders, who were largely responsible for creating the world celebrated by the exhausted crowds that flocked to it. to the new museum.

Kramer said in an interview that the Academy Museum has always aimed to open a temporary gallery devoted to the subject. We’ve been on our list for a long time to do this, and we knew it would be on our first rotations,” he said recently while drinking coffee at the museum’s restaurant, Fanny’s. However, criticism prompted museum officials to decide to switch gears and accept it as a permanent exhibit.

“Representation is very important,” Kramer said. “We’ve heard that and we take it seriously. When you talk about founding Hollywood studios, you’re talking about Jewish founders.”

The dispute highlights the challenges museums across the country face in an atmosphere of heightened sensitivities to representation, race and gender. It is particularly complicated for the Academy Museum, as audiences leave movie theaters for their living rooms, as it tries to walk the uncomfortable line between being a place of scholarship and being a sales tool for an industry trying to reinvent itself.

“This is a huge loss,” said Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League. “Any honest historical assessment of the movie industry must include the role played by the Jews in building the industry from scratch.”

Some historians have said the omission appears to be the latest example of Hollywood’s strained relationship with Jewish history.

“You have to understand that Hollywood was founded in its beginnings out of fear that its founders and those who perpetuated the industry would be identified as Jewish,” said Neal Gabler, author of “An Empire of Its Own: How to Your Own.” Jews Invented Hollywood”, a book about Jewish studio heads. “It’s almost fitting that a museum dedicated to the history of Hollywood should incorporate this fear and sensibility into its evolution.”

Still, Jewish leaders said they were satisfied with the museum’s response to its complaints. Kramer and other museum leaders reached out to rabbis and Jewish scholars, including Gabler and Greenblatt, for guidance on what should be included in the new gallery to repair this breach.

“I believe they will do the right thing,” Greenblatt said.

However, it is not yet clear what this is. The exhibition is planned for a relatively modest 850 square meter gallery on the third floor of the building. Curator Dara Jaffe said the exhibition, which will be called “Hollywoodland,” will be a broad look at the origins of the industry. It will highlight the biographies and achievements of the founders of major studios and some lesser-known Jewish filmmakers.

“Why Los Angeles?” We want to answer the question. said Jaffe. “Why is this where the world capital of cinema blossoms? It is no coincidence that many of the founders were predominantly Jewish. This is a Jewish story in particular, and a Jewish immigrant story in particular.”

Important details, from how the exhibition, which will not be opened for a year, will be presented to what kind of works will take place, are still in the planning stage.

Haim Saban, Israeli-American philanthropist and media entrepreneur, with his wife, Cheryl, donated $50 million He told the museum in an email that the promise of a new gallery “not only highlights how seriously the Academy Museum takes feedback, but also demonstrates an understanding of the critical role Jewish founders have had.” The founding and shaping of Hollywood.”

Saban was among his biggest supporters, voicing his concern a few days after the museum’s opening. He and his wife were critical in financing a $487 million project; The main exhibition hall in the museum was named the “Plow Building” in their honor.

Some ask how a museum is so careful to highlight the contributions of people from diverse backgrounds – it created an Inclusion Advisory Committee to offer guidance on how to tackle these issues and called for “Embrace and Become Diversity”. “Radical Inclusive” guiding principles – He neglected to take into account the role of some of the biggest names in Hollywood history.

“Jews in the industry have a historical tendency to downplay the fact that they are Jewish,” said Rabbi Kurt F. Stone of Boca Raton, Florida, who grew up in Los Angeles and is one of the museum’s rabbis. consulted after the reaction began. “But do I have an answer for why they suck so much? I don’t.”

Sid Ganis, former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the museum’s lifetime trustee, said he was surprised by the depth of anger that emerged after the museum opened its doors. “It was sound and real and something we paid attention to,” he said.

Ganis, a longtime defender of the museum, added that the organizers have always been aware of the importance of Jews in Hollywood history and that this is not an omission. “We haven’t reached him yet,” he said. “Opening the museum in late October and early November was a huge undertaking. And we made choices. It was something we knew we would always attend. But now it’s even more.”



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