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er American Jewish community— and,
as well, a part of the nation's diverse
demographic landscape, coalescing
with countless other minority groups,
even as we have sought to maintain our
sense of pride in our history and our
particular traditions."
The museum will tell the story of the
making of the American people from
the first migrations to this land thou-
sands of years ago, extending through
waves of migration and immigration to
the present. It will challenge visitors to
reflect upon that history. Yet nowhere
is there a museum devoted to telling
this full story about the making of the
American people.
For Jewish Americans, as well as all
the others, the museum will tell who
they were, where they came from, why
they left their original land, how they
got here, when they arrived, where they
first settled, who was already here, what
they encountered, where they moved
after they arrived, how they became
Americans, what they contributed and
how they transformed the nation.
"HIAS strongly supports the estab-
lishment of the National Museum of the
American people and believes it will
depict the experience and contributions
of the Jewish people to American life
and America's rich history of diversity,"
said Mark Hetfield, interim president
and CEO of HIAS.
Founded in the early 1880s, HIAS,
the global migration agency of the
American Jewish community, is the old-
est international migration and refugee
resettlement agency in the world. In its
130 years of service, HIAS has assisted
more than 4.5 million people to start
new lives in freedom and security,
including the vast majority of Jewish
families in the U.S.
The coalition is not seeking federal
funding to plan, build or operate the
museum. A resolution in Congress
calling for a presidential commission
to study the museum has bipartisan
support, including from Reps. Leonard
Lance, R-NJ, co-chair of the House
Republican Israel Caucus and Nita
Lowey, D-NY, and David Cicilline,
D-RI, members of the Jewish American
Congressional delegation.
"The story of the making of the
American people would be presented
in a dramatic, interactive documentary
format," said Sam Eskenazi, director of
the Coalition for the National Museum
of the American People. "It would be
developed and vetted by teams of emi-
nent scholars, including scholars of
American Jewish history, and be told
with force and clarity.
"The National Museum of the
American People's permanent exhibi-
tion will leave an indelible impression
of knowledge and understanding on
visitors as they engage with and come
to know the full story of the making
of the American people and how the
story of Jewish Americans fits into that
story," he said.
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74 October 18 • 2012
Obituaries
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