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I JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
Weitzman to Reopen
with New Exhibit
n May, the Weitzman National
Museum of American Jewish
History will reopen for the fi rst
time since the pandemic broke out two
years ago, according to Misha Galperin,
the museum’s president and CEO.

And it will do so with a new exhibit
about an event that just happened: the
January synagogue hostage crisis in
Colleyville, Texas.

Th e exhibit will use the Colleyville
crisis, in which an armed British-
Pakistani man held four Jews hostage,
as anecdotal evidence of the larger rise
in antisemitism in the United States
since around 2015.

Antisemitic incidents in the U.S.

have reached record highs during
this period, according to the Anti-
Defamation League. The stretch
includes the 2017 white supremacist
rally in Charlottesville, Virginia; the
2018 Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh;
and the 2019 synagogue stabbing in
Monsey, New York.

Brandeis University professor and
American Jewish historian Jonathan
Sarna is also the chief historian at the
Weitzman, and, in that role, he has
pushed the museum to start empha-
sizing modern history. According to
Sarna, many American Jews forgot
that antisemitism was a potent force
and still need to be reminded that it
has long been a part of the American
Jewish experience.

Museum offi cials, led by Galperin,
agreed and wanted to time their fi rst
such exhibit with their reopening.

So aft er the January crisis, in which
all four hostages escaped unharmed,
Galperin and company reached out
to the synagogue, Congregation Beth
Israel, to procure some materials.

“We thought it was an important his-
torical event and that it was important
to tell the story,” the CEO said.

Th e formerly named National Museum
of American Jewish History fi led for
8 MARCH 3, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia
Photo by Barry Halkin/Halkin Photography
Professor Jonathan Sarna
Courtesy of Brandeis University