[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1_930932.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia is being considered as a potential new member of the Smithsonian museum network, with members of a new congressional commission sworn in on Tuesday set to study the matter.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency<\/em>, Philip Darivoff, a former longtime chair of the Weitzman and current chair of the new commission, and Dara Horn, a writer serving as vice chair, \u201csaid that the Weitzman joining the Smithsonian would send a powerful message that Jews are a crucial component of the history of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDarivoff told the JTA<\/em>, \u201cIt\u2019s a different statement that our country makes when it says that the study of Jewish American history and culture is important to this nation,\u201d and both commission members hope possible inclusion in the Smithsonian network could help stem what they called an \u201cepidemic of ignorance\u201d about Jewish history and culture.<\/p>\n \n\tThe prospect of the Weitzman joining the Smithsonian dates back to legislation passed by the Biden administration in 2024 to establish the congressional commission. Now, after having been sworn in, the commission has two years to study the matter\u2014\u201cthough Darivoff said he hopes to finish the work well before the deadline,\u201d according to the JTA<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History was founded in 1976 and is currently a Smithsonian affiliate, which means it can share resources with other museums in the network. Current offerings there include a new \u201cimmersive family experience\u201d called Colors of Creation, an exhibition titled \u201cThe First Salute: An Untold Story of the American Revolution,\u201d and a core exhibition covering history dating back to the 1600s, \u201cwhen the first permanent Jewish settlers came to the New World from Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/congressional-commission-smithsonian-weitzman-musuem-1234802334\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1_930932.jpg?w=1024″] The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia is being considered as a potential new member of the Smithsonian museum network, with members of a new congressional commission sworn in on Tuesday set to study the matter. As reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Philip Darivoff, a former longtime chair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2199694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2199694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2199694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2199694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2199694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}