(Jewish Group) The Importance of Telling Hollywood's Jewish Origin Story [View all]

Long desired by the film industry and the City of Los Angeles, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened its doors in Los Angeles on Sept. 30, 2021. The largest museum in the United States devoted to the arts, sciences, and artists of moviemaking, the museum’s opening exhibitions include moments devoted to The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, Spike Lee, Hayao Miyazaki, costume design, visual effects, sound design, pre-cinematic storytelling, and so much more. Designed to rotate to ensure that a multiplicity of cinematic stories are told, these exhibitions — and the museum itself — were widely praised.

However, some rightfully noted the absence of an exhibition focused on Hollywood’s largely Jewish immigrant founders. Others put it more bluntly: “Where are the Jews?”

And they weren’t wrong in asking the question.

They were referring to the Jewish filmmaking giants who had a profound impact on the creation of the Hollywood studios — such legendary figures as William Fox, Harry and Jack Warner, Carl Laemmle, Louis B. Mayer, Adolph Zukor and Harry Cohn. Many expressed concern that this was a missed opportunity to tell an important story about how the antisemitism that was so pervasive in America at the time played an important role in the development of the industry itself. And this question was being asked in current context of, once again, surging antisemitism and a sense by many in the Jewish community that they are being erased.

Representation and equity are core values of the museum. An exhibition on the creation of Hollywood — highlighting the Jewish founders — long had been planned by the museum for a 2023 opening. And the museum opened with a two-month screening and panel series on Viennese émigrés, many of whom were Jewish, who helped to define the classical Hollywood era, including Max Steiner, Billy Wilder, and Hedy Lamarr. However, after many conversations and consultations with important stakeholders and a process of self-reflection, the museum has decided that this vital exhibition on the founding of Hollywood needs to be a permanent part of the museum.

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