A version of this piece first appeared in David A.M. Wilensky’s weekly email newsletter, “Your Sunday J.” Sign up here.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum, the delightfully idiosyncratic San Francisco institution focused on modern Jewish life and artwork, will close for at least one year, starting on Dec. 15. Culture editor Laura Paull brought you preliminary details last week. And today staff writer Maya Mirsky brings you reflections from artists and community members who love the museum.
But here, I want to talk about the broader context and implications.
Attendance at CJM never quite bounced back after the pandemic. Plus, donations are down — and there are a few reasons for that.
Personally, I have always gotten the sense that some of the usual big donors in our community would prefer a more, let’s say, normal Jewish museum. Most local Jewish museums in this country have permanent exhibits about Judaica, local Jewish history and the Holocaust. But that’s not what this museum is about. It’s right there in the name: Contemporary.
And that’s what I love about it: contemporary Jewish art and issues, always pushing the boundaries of what a Jewish museum could be. It’s the perfect museum for a Jewish community like the one we are blessed with here in the Bay Area, where we constantly push the boundaries of contemporary Jewish community, culture and spiritual expression.
I might suggest we can also look at the general drop in attendance and funding for the arts nationally; in the Bay Area we’ve lost California Shakespeare Theatre, Bay Area Children’s Theatre and PianoFight, to name just a few. Still, in the Jewish community, we should be able to mitigate that trend by appealing to major Jewish philanthropists’ interest in building up and sustaining Jewish life, no?
But since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, donor dollars have been increasingly diverted to organizations focused on Israel and antisemitism, as CJM leaders acknowledged in our Nov. 15 report.
Dana Sheanin of Jewish LearningWorks spelled out the same problem in a recent op-ed. If you missed it, I highly recommend taking a look. She writes of a national survey that found declining donations to many American Jewish organizations over the last year. And she cites the recent demise of a couple local Jewish orgs — the East Bay youth group Jewish Youth for Community Action and the Jewish Coalition for Literacy. In the case of the organization she leads, which supports Jewish education throughout the Bay Area, it led to significant layoffs.
Anecdotally, she and I have both heard of dire fundraising situations and resulting layoffs at a number of other local Jewish orgs.
I have to wonder: When big philanthropists and small donors are done saving Israel, will there be life left in diaspora communities? When they are done circling the wagons to fend off antisemitism, will there be institutions of value left to defend?
For most of y’all, these are rhetorical questions. But I know there are some significant donors reading this, and I am asking you a real question: What will be left when you’ve pulled all your dollars out of Jewish community, Jewish arts and Jewish education?
This need not be a zero-sum game. We have some incredibly wealthy people among us. If they (you) choose to, they (you) can support work that combats antisemitism and work that builds up love of Jewish culture and learning at the same time. If they (you) choose to.
Are we looking at a major crisis — or am I blowing this out of proportion? Do you know of a local Jewish organization or program staring into the fundraising abyss? Write to me at [email protected] and tell me what you think.