After leading the transformation of Tel Aviv’s erstwhile Diaspora Museum into today’s ANU-Museum of the Jewish People, Dan Tadmor has been tapped to serve as the next president and CEO of Philadelphia’s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History beginning Jan. 1, the museum announced on Tuesday. Tadmor will succeed Misha Galperin, who stepped down earlier this year after some four years in the role.

During his time at ANU, Tadmor guided it through a major rebranding, a $100 million renovation and a concerted effort to transform it from a relatively minor museum into a leading institution on Israel-Diaspora relations. Tripling its size, ANU-Museum of the Jewish People has become the largest Jewish museum in the world.

Established in 1976 as the National Museum of American Jewish History, the institution moved to its current 100,000-square-foot location on Independence Mall in 2010, at a cost of $150 million. Partly due to the debt caused by the construction, the museum declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2020, emerging in September 2021 thanks to support from donors, including real estate investor Mitchell Morgan and shoe designer Stuart Weitzman, whom the museum was renamed for.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization is “way in the back mirror,” Tadmor told eJewishPhilanthropy. “It’s not present in our lives at all. [The Weitzman is] a healthy organization that does a lot of good. It’s thriving. It’s flourishing.” The museum, which is currently “affiliated” with the Smithsonian, is under consideration by Congress to be transferred to the official U.S. government museum system.

In one of his first interviews since being selected as the next CEO of the Weitzman, Tadmor spoke with eJP about his plans for the years ahead, the museum’s journey to becoming a Smithsonian institution, whose story is part of the American Jewish story and how to cultivate viral moments, such as when then-President Donald Trump mispronounced the name of Yosemite National Park as “yo-semite,” leading to the museum selling over $30,000 worth of “Yo Semite” T-shirts in three days.

The interview has been edited for clarity.

Jay Deitcher: What lessons did you learn from your time at ANU?

Dan Tadmor: Look, a modern museum is always more than a museum. You’ve got core exhibits, changing exhibitions, but also public programming, education and all sorts of outreach.

The museum needs to make sure that it remains relevant, especially a thematic museum, a museum that tells a story, and this is the story of Jews in general, and American Jews specifically. In time, the stories change. The way in which we tell them changes. Technology changes. The challenge in museums always is how do you remain relevant and how do you remain up to date.

Museums typically either evolve incrementally or drastically with varying degrees, or they don’t at all and they’re going to become irrelevant.

JD: Oct. 7 has shifted the world for Jews. A lot of American Jews are yearning for identity, but also have had our views of America changed. How do you see the museum having to change?

DT: Several processes began before Oct. 7, like the rise in antisemitism. We need to make sure that we Jews are confident and knowledgeable and literate in our identity.

With relation to people who are not Jewish, some antisemites are beyond reach. But there’s also a lot of disinformation and misinformation. A lot of people were simply misguided. And we can play a part in alleviating some of that misinformation.

In terms of changes in the Jewish world, we know that there’s a growing need for Jews to be together as Jews. One of the places that that can happen is the preeminent Jewish museum, the Weitzman, both through exhibitions and in-person events.

Another trend that is probably not going away is that some Jews are, for the first time in their life, feeling Jewish in a visceral way. For a lot of people, Oct. 7 was the first time in their lives something happened in their kishkes, not in their mind, but their kishkes. We need to give people the opportunity to engage with that visceral Jewish identity.

JD: The Weitzman went into bankruptcy in 2020 and then went out of it in 2021. What lessons need to be learned from that?

DT: Since it emerged from Chapter 11, not bankruptcy, Chapter 11, it’s a slight difference, it’s been fiscally stable.

The lesson is, at any institution, is that you need to make sure that you are fiscally responsible. The Weitzman was, but museums are challenging business. Always. All museums. The rule of thumb is that if you are relevant  and if you have good reach and impact, then either through earned revenue or other forms of support, you’ll be OK. The secret is make sure that you stand for something, that you know what you want to say, make sure that you market it correctly. Success breeds stability. And, also, stay within your means.

JD: What did you learn from the viral “Yo Semite” shirt? 

DT: Seize the opportunity. I’m amazed by what they did. My predecessor, Misha Galperin, and Kristen [Kreider], who runs the shop, pounced on that opportunity and made a bundle.

JD: The “Yo Semite” shirt and the “Oy/Yo” statue [which is a popular social media picture destination] are clearly hitting a demographic of younger Jews. How important is it that you start really getting these younger Jewish leaders involved in philanthropy?

DT: Whenever you meet somebody who runs any business and you ask them, ‘Who’s your audience?’ and they tell you everybody, then you should know that that person is an idiot. But in the museum world, it’s almost true, because we need to cater to literally anyone from 6 to 86 because families come in and school groups come in.

You want to make sure that your programming is relevant to everybody, and you want to make sure that your exhibitions are relevant to everyone. And yes, it’s never been more important to offer something to the younger generation.

In terms of fundraising, people get philanthropic, usually, at a later age. Effective altruism is the kind of philanthropy that’s more popular among younger people. It’s a logical philanthropy. It’s not emotional philanthropy. 

In general, what is [a] philanthropist? Why does the philanthropist do philanthropy? They want impact. They want to change the world. And if a philanthropist sees that we’re changing the world by engaging younger people, they’ll get behind it.

JD: All the press and marketing for your organization says, with a lot of confidence, that you’re on the way to becoming a Smithsonian Institution. How can you say that with such conviction?

DT: It’s not only us saying it. It’s the House [of Representatives] saying it, and the Senate is about to say that as well. There’s legislation that has passed in the House and is going to the Senate. So it’s happening.

Becoming a Smithsonian says two things. One, it’s a declaration on the part of the U.S. government that American Jews are an integral part of the fabric of American society. On the other hand, it ensures that the museum remains a top-notch, world-class organization forever.

There have been cases where [becoming a Smithsonian Institution] was quick. There have been cases that were slow. Maybe the African American Museum [National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C] was 100 years in the making. But it’s different in our case, the building is there, the museum is there. You don’t need to build it. And so it’ll be a quicker process.

JD: The demographics of Jews are changing, and more diversity is being recognized within our communities. What is the story of Jews in America?

DT: Diversity is certainly a part of it, but it’s not because we’re bending over backwards to be politically correct, but because the Jewish people are diverse. If you’re telling the story accurately, it has to be a diverse story, in terms of gender, denomination, ethnicity. The museum needs to reflect that, both in its exhibitions and in its programming.

It does already to a large extent, and maybe we can do more, especially with [Sephardic aspects]. The Sephardic roots of American Jews is something that people are not aware of. Jews usually don’t know that the first Jews in America were Sephardic Jews.

But the museum needs to make narrative choices. For instance, how much of an emphasis does our museum put on general Jews 101, and how much do we focus on American Jews? How much do we go in the direction of particularism versus universalism?

What are the central themes that we want to address? Do we want to address freedom? Do we want to address liberty? Do we want to address religious freedom? What do we do with Holocaust? Are we, in general, a museum that’s gloom and doom? Are we a pessimistic organization or an optimistic organization?