When the popular Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in 2021 with an exhibit celebrating the diversity of the film industry, the museum was criticized for excluding one group: Hollywood’s founders.
Last month, the museum aimed to correct that oversight by opening a permanent new exhibit highlighting the formative role Jewish immigrants like Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer played in the creation of the American film industry.
But the new exhibition, which became a critical eye on the establishment of Hollywood, ignited uproar. An open letter from “United Jewish Writers” sent to the museum on Monday objected to the use of words including “tyrant,” “oppressive,” “womanizer” and “predator” in the wall text, calling the exhibit “antisemitic” and describing it as “the only part of a museum that destroys the people it is meant to celebrate.”
In response to the growing protests, the Academy Museum said in a statement Monday that it had “heard the concerns of members of the Jewish community” and was “committed to making changes to the exhibit to address these concerns.”
“We will immediately implement the first change – it will allow us to tell these important stories without using phrases that may inadvertently reinforce stereotypes,” the museum said.
The museum announced the change before receiving an open letter, signed by more than 300 Hollywood professionals. “While we recognize the value of confronting Hollywood’s past problems, the abominable double standards of the Jewish Founders show, blaming only Jews for past problems, is unacceptable and, intentionally or not, antisemitic,” the letter said. “We invite the Academy Museum to complete this exhibition in order to celebrate the founding fathers of Hollywood with the same respect and passion that is celebrated in all museums.”
Signatories include entertainment executive Casey Wasserman, actor David Schwimmer and television writer Amy Sherman-Palladino.
“This is not an unconscious bias, this is a conscious bias,” said one of the signatories, Lawrence Bender, who produced Quentin Tarantino’s films, in an interview. “It felt like a hatchet job on the Jews.”
The exhibit, which opened last month, features the work of Neal Gabler, who wrote “An Empire of Their Own: How Jews Found Hollywood.” It includes a segment on the founders of Hollywood studios, a look at the evolution of Los Angeles and a documentary, “From Shtetl to Studio: The Jewish Story of Hollywood,” narrated by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.
There are some positive reviews. While criticizing the absence of archival objects, for example, The Wall Street Journal said that the exhibition “must silence the clamorous voices calling for clear Jewish representation in this museum and some acknowledgment of the industry’s earliest history.”
But a negative response soon emerged amid heightened sensitivity about antisemitism in the wake of the October 7 attacks on Israel and the war in Gaza. TheWrap reported in many criticisms last week, and a piece in Los Angeles The magazine titled “Hiding in Plain Sight: How the Academy Museum Relegated Hollywood’s Jewish Founders to the Ghetto,” reported Alma Har’el, an American Israeli film director. who had served on the museum’s inclusivity committee, resigned after the exhibition tour.
Some critics took issue with what they saw as the exhibition’s implication that Hollywood’s Jewish pioneers had discriminated against other marginalized groups as a means of assimilation, noting the discussion of blackface in “The Jazz Singer.”
“Nothing is said about the racist portrayal of DW Griffith or Walt Disney or their questionable leadership methods,” Keetgi Kogan, a Hollywood writer and producer, wrote in the museum. “Only the Jewish founders are accused of oppressive control, of being whitewashers, tyrants, women, predators, social climbers, and of course racists.”
Jonathan A. Greenblatt, chief executive of The Anti-Defamation League, said that “we are shocked and appalled that the Academy is trying to get it right and it seems to be wrong.”
Controversy over the exhibit came to a halt two weeks after the Academy announced that the museum’s director and president, Jacqueline Stewart, would step down. Stewart, a film historian and recipient of the 2021 MacArthur Foundation “genius” award, will return to the University of Chicago, where he is a professor. He will be replaced by Amy Homma, the museum’s chief audience officer, who serves on the Anti-Defamation League’s board of entertainment leaders.
Academy officials said his departure had nothing to do with the exhibition. In an interview, Stewart said it was a “huge learning experience for us,” adding that the museum is not meant to emphasize the negative, but to provide “a sense of excitement and exploration and innovation.”
The museum said it would convene “an advisory group of experts from major museums focused on the Jewish community, civil rights, and the history of other marginalized groups.”
Have agreed to meet with some critics. Jennifer Levine, the producer, said she had an appointment scheduled for the week after next, was “heartbroken and sad” after visiting the exhibition on the opening day.
