OPINION
The tragic murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim on May 21, in Washington, D.C., and the attempted murder of Jewish senior citizens in Boulder, Colorado were painful reminders that the lessons of the Holocaust have not been learned.
The Holocaust occurred in European countries.
During that time, ordinary citizens cooperated or remained indifferent to the mass murders of their neighbors.
For decades since the Holocaust, there have been many cries of “Never Again!”
Yet, antisemitism in the U.S. has now hit a frightening new peak.
Just in case the message about the need to halt antisemitism in the U.S. did not hit home, the target of the Boulder attack was an 88-year-old Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor: Barbara Steinmetz.
Thankfully, America has the United States Holocaust Memorial to lead the efforts to educate the masses about antisemitism’s dangers.
But in its current form, is the museum really fulfilling that important role?
As a proud member of the Holocaust Memorial Council, I shudder to say that the answer is unfortunately no.
Why?
First, I must lament the weak connection between museum and the Jewish people.
The museum was designed when it was thought that antisemitism was a thing of the past, so it has moved on to combatting other types of hate.
The museum already provides no context of Jewish history before 1930 or after 1945.
A planned renovation of the main exhibit hall could make the museum even more woke and disconnected, thus interpreting history in a myopic manner.
It could even become a liberal monument to the dangers of immigration enforcement and conservative politics!
What the museum should be doing is teaching Americans that antisemitism is the world’s oldest hatred, one beginning all the way back, some 4000 years ago, when Nimrod threw the world’s first Jew, Abraham, into a fiery furnace.
More importantly, the museum needs to teach its visitors about the story of Jewish survival.
It needs to present the facts about the founding of Israel in 1948, the Six Day War of June, 1967 and the Yom Kippur War, of Oct.1973, and yes, the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023.
The museum must educate its visitors about pogroms leading to the creation of the Zionist movement. Additionally, it needs to paint America in the most positive light — touching upon the opportunities that America has offered to Holocaust survivors and their families, to this day.
It has been 19 months since more Jews were murdered than any day since the Holocaust.
Each day since then, there has been an elephant missing from the room at the museum.
Its educational approach must be changed. The museum has no shortage of visitors and reaches thousands of teachers. But they are taught generally about hate, not enough practical information on antisemitism to enable the Holocaust to become more relatable to them.
There has not been enough emphasis on preventing antisemitism in America, including where the problem is raging at universities.
Harvard-Harris polling has asked Americans of all ages if they are more pro-Israel or pro-Hamas monthly, since Oct. 7, 2023.
April 2025 was the first month that a majority of 18–24-year-olds said they preferred Hamas over Israel, 51-49%. Such polls indicate that a different approach is required at the Holocaust Memorial Council.
Unfortunately, there is no metric to demonstrate that the museum has done anything to quell the disturbing rise of antisemitism in America, or to prove that the museum changes its visitors’ views about Jews.
All indications are that the museum is failing in this regard.
Happily, President Donald Trump, who has made combatting antisemitism a priority of his second term, appears to understand these challenges and has begun cleaning house at the museum.
Last month, he fired several Biden appointees to the council, including former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain, former vice president Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, former labor secretary Tom Perez, Barack Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice, former deputy national security adviser Jon Finer and Anthony Bernal, a former senior adviser to first lady Jill Biden, none of whom belonged on the council to begin with.
What business did Susan Rice have on the Holocaust council?
Rice was responsible for politicizing the Biden National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism by excluding anti-Zionism and including Islamophobia.
Jon Finer called members of the Israeli government “abhorrent,” saying, “I do not have any confidence in this current government of Israel,” in 2024 remarks to Arab leaders in Dearborn, Michigan.
Bernal is under investigation by a U.S. House Committee over the potential misuse of the Biden autopen which ironically may been used in his own appointment to the council.
Biden appointed Emhoff, the husband of the Democrats’ failed presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, to the council just five months ago on Jan. 17, 2025.
This was three days before President Trump’s Inaugural.
Emhoff decided against leaving the council gracefully, telling the Associated Press (AP) that his firing “dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”
This writer is sorry, but replacing these partisan hacks does no disservice to the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust or any survivor or descendant.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was indeed created not for politics but to preserve the memory of the Shoah and consequently future generations from violent antisemitism, a critical role that should never be curtailed
If the members of the council who were dismissed did not realize that modern enemies of the Jewish people, including Iran and Hamas, must be recognized at the museum, perhaps they were not so fit to begin with.
The new members of the council appointed by President Trump will bring their expertise from their careers as well as their skills and their important values.
The museum in D.C., and its Baltimore site, require greater oversight by the council. and there must be input from the Trump administration to have a positive impact on its future.
It’s time to rethink the museum and what it is supposed to do to combat antisemitism in America and make the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum great again.
Martin Oliner currently serves as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, appointed by President Trump five years ago. The views expressed here are his own. Contact him at Martinoliner@gmail.com
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