The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, a 300,000- square-foot tribute to Hollywood, opened here last fall and was praised for honoring contributions by women, artists of color and people from many background.
The director of the museum said the day after that they wanted to ensure that they were taking an honest, inclusive and diverse look at our history.
The Jewish immigrants and white men who were central to founding the Hollywood studio system were not included in the initial celebration of diversity and inclusivity. Through dozens of exhibits and rooms, there is barely a mention of Harry and Jack Warner, Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn or Louis B. Mayer, to list just a few of the best-known names from Hollywood's history.
The omission, which came at a time of increasing concern about rising antisemitism across the country, soon drew complaints from Jewish leaders, concern from supporters of the new museum and a number of critical articles, including in Rolling Stone and The Forward. The Academy's new museum has erased their history.
The head of the Anti-Defamation League said he was shocked by the absence of Jews in the Hollywood story.
Museum officials say that will change.
The lives and contributions of the Jewish studio founders who were largely responsible for creating the world that is being celebrated by the sellout crowds flocking to the new museum will be the subject of a new permanent exhibition next spring.
The Academy Museum had always intended to open a temporary gallery devoted to the subject. The museum decided to make it a permanent exhibition after the criticism.
Representation is so important that we take it seriously. When you talk about the founding of Hollywood studios, you're talking about the Jewish people.
The challenge museums face in an atmosphere of heightened sensitivities about issues of representation and race and gender is highlighted by the dispute. The Academy Museum is trying to walk an uncomfortable line between being a place of scholarship and a sales tool for an industry that is struggling to adapt as audiences abandon movie theaters for living rooms.
The Anti-Defamation League said it was a huge miss.
The omission appeared to be the latest example of Hollywood's strained relationship with its Jewish history.
Neal Gabler, the author, said that Hollywood was formed out of a fear that its creators would be identified as Jews.
The museum's response to their complaints was good news for the Jewish leaders. Rabbis and Jewish scholars, including Gabler and Greenblatt, were reached out to by the museum leaders, asking them what should be included in the new gallery.
I am confident that they are going to do the right thing.
It is not clear what that is. The third floor of the building is where the exhibition will be held. The exhibition will look at the beginnings of the industry. The biographies and achievements of the founding fathers of the major studios will be highlighted.
Why is Los Angeles the world capital of cinema? Many of the founding fathers are Jewish. It is a specifically Jewish story and a specifically Jewish immigrant story.
The exhibition will not open for a year, and key details about how it will be presented are still being planned.
The promise of a new gallery underscores how seriously the Academy Museum is taken, according to an email from an Israeli American philanthropist who with his wife, Cheryl, donated $50 million to the museum.
Within days after the museum opened, the major backers of the museum registered their concern. The main exhibition hall at the museum was named after him and his wife, who were critical to financing the project.
Some are asking how a museum that takes care to highlight the contributions of people from a diverse array of background was able to create an Inclusion Advisory Committee to offer guidance on how to deal with these issues.
Rabbi Kurt F. Stone, who grew up in Los Angeles and is one of the rabbis at the museum, said that there is a tendency of Jewish people in the industry to downplay their Jewish heritage. I don't.
The outrage that emerged after the museum opened was vocal and real, and something we paid attention to, said Sid Ganis, a former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a lifetime Trustee of the museum.
He said that organizers were aware of the importance of Jews in Hollywood history. We made choices. It was something we were going to attend to. Even more so now.
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