H EADLINES
NMAJH Continued from Page 1
surgery: something the board was
reluctant to do but was neces-
sary for the health and future of
the museum. Still, it presented
challenges. “Th ere were two major forces
that this debt burden placed on
us,” Darivoff said. “It made us
unattractive to donors, and it
made it really diffi cult for us
to operate, because we had to
come up with a million-and-a-
half dollars of cash every year to
service the debt.”
Th at sum was 20% of the
museum’s annual budget.

Th e pandemic furthered the
museum’s fi nancial struggles.

Two weeks aft er reorganizing, the
museum shut down all in-person
operations. It was unable to apply
for federal Paycheck Protection
Program loans for its employees
aft er fi ling for bankruptcy and, as
a result, downsized its full-time
staff from 34 to 12.

Despite the museum’s
closing and its diminished staff ,
NMAJH’s online programming
remained robust during the
pandemic, attracting 4 million
people to online programs and
fundraisers. Th e museum also
expanded its partnerships,
working with 20 different
organizations to develop online
programming. Programs included online
exhibits on Jewish soldiers in
World War II and the prevalence
of tuberculosis in American-
Jewish communities, as well as
a klezmer concert.

Due to the continued pandemic
restrictions, the museum is still
closed to the public, but aft er the
exit from bankruptcy on Sept.

17, NMAJH will look to expand
its audience and try a couple
diff erent business models.

“Now that we’re debt-free,
we’re in a very different
scenario,” NMAJH CEO Misha
Galperin said. “Hopefully with
the pandemic being controlled
at some point in the near future,
it will be a whole diff erent story.”
NMAJH is working on a 3-D
digitization of its permanent
exhibits through the fi nancial
support of George Blumenthal,
who previously supported some
of its online exhibits.

Galperin believes the
technology will help make
the museum more accessible,
working toward NMAJH’s goal
of expanding its audience. It
will be a much more interactive
experience than previous online
exhibits. “It’s diffi cult to really feel like
you’re in the museum when you
can’t interact with the objects
in a way that you want to,” said
Hannah Deoliveira, a summer
intern from the University of
Pennsylvania. “You can’t zoom in
or you can’t look at the diff erent
description lines and credit lines.”
Even with the advanced
technology of the digitized
exhibits, Darivoff believes the
online experience is incompa-
rable to an in-person one.

“We can read about the
Kotel, but until you are standing
at the Kotel, you do not under-
stand its majesty,” Darivoff said.

“Museums off er this physical
presence with artifacts in
history that I think is deeply
meaningful to people.”
Because of that belief,
NMAJH wants to translate its
large virtual audience to a large
in-person one by merging with
the Smithsonian Institution.

NMAJH’s inclusion in the
Smithsonian’s system would
provide necessary branding for
NMAJH to attract a national
audience. “We have an extraordinary,
huge collection of over 30,000
NMAJH will emerge from bankruptcy on Sept. 17.

objects of Jewish Americana,
so by becoming part of the
national system, we’ll be able
to tell the story of American
Jews in this country to Jews
and to people of diff erent
backgrounds,” Galperin said.

NMAJH is already an affi liate
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museum of the Smithsonian,
which allows the museum
and the Smithsonian to share
artifacts and research, but a
merger with the Smithsonian
would allow the museum to be
free of charge because of the
support of federal dollars.

Th e museum experimented
with free admission in summer
2019, sponsored by a group of
donors. NMAJH’s attendance
quadrupled. Th ere is already large bipar-
tisan support for NMAJH’s
inclusion in the Smithsonian,
with 38 members of the House of
Representatives and 23 senators
supporting merger legislation.

In the coming months, board
members from the Smithsonian
and NMAJH, as well as members
of Congress, will meet to discuss
the details of NMAJH’s inclu-
sion in the institution.

“If we are to fulfi ll our dual
mission of inspiring American
Jews and educating and inspiring
non-Jewish Americans, the
Smithsonian is central to fulfi lling
that mission,” Darivoff said. ●
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
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