Jewish Group Demands Academy Museum Fire ‘Leftist Radical’ Curator of Hollywood Founders Exhibit

The nonprofit group StopAntisemitism called on the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures to fire associate curator Dara Jaffe for her work on its Jewish founders of Hollywood exhibit, “Hollywoodland,” which has been widely criticized as being antisemitic.

The nonprofit jointly posted to Instagram with influencer Tanya Zuckerbrot, a “proud Jew and Zionist,” on Sunday slamming Jaffe as a “toxic leftist radical” who is engaged to Egyptian lighting designer Omar Madkour, “who appears to be in this country illegally and calls for violence against Jews on Instagram.” The post does not provide evidence that Madkour is in the country illegally, but posts a screenshot of anti-Israel posts from his Instagram account, which is private.

The nonprofit said that as curator, Jaffe “went out of her way to vilify Hollywood’s Jewish founders,” using words like “predator” and “tyrant.”

The account, which has over 200,000 followers and whose post had over 3,700 likes and 100 comments at the time of this article’s publication, said that a former coworker said Jaffe had “white savior guilt.” StopAntisemitism and Zuckerbrot also listed contact information for members of the museum’s board — Ted Sarandos, Miky Lee and Kimberly Steward — to demand Jaffe’s “immediate” dismissal.

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” the post’s caption read. Read it in full below.

Representatives for the Academy Museum did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

As TheWrap exclusively reported earlier this month, the controversial exhibit dedicated to the Jewish founders of Hollywood quickly earned criticism for perpetuating “antisemitic tropes” and focusing on the founders’ flaws rather than their achievements. A series of explosive letters were sent to the Academy by prominent Jewish members criticizing the exhibit for taking pains to point out Jewish founders’ flaws using derogatory terms like “predator” and “tyrant.” Last week a new letter signed by 300 prominent Hollywood Jews surfaced calling on the Academy to “redo” the exhibit, and the Academy promised “immediate” changes.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures made those changes on Wednesday, a development also exclusively reported by TheWrap, removing the most offensive words. Panels in the exhibit were swapped out with new text.

A description of Hollywood’s Golden Age as a period of “oppressive control” was removed on the Studio Origins panel. On the Warner Bros. panel, a “frugal approach” was replaced by “smaller budgets” and the description of Jack Warner as a “womanizer” was removed.

For Columbia’s Harry Cohn, the reference to the exec’s reputation as a “tyrant and a predator” was replaced with “earning a reputation as an authoritarian.”

And on a panel about “The Jazz Singer,” a comparison between “assimilationist” ambitions of Jewish founders and the film’s Jewish lead character was removed.

“We have heard the concerns from members of the Jewish community regarding some components of our exhibition ‘Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital,’” the Academy Museum said on Monday in a statement obtained by TheWrap. “We take these concerns seriously and are committed to making changes to the exhibition to address them. We will be implementing the first set of changes immediately — they will allow us to tell these important stories without using phrasing that may unintentionally reinforce stereotypes.”

TheWrap has further learned that the museum’s Chief Audience Officer Amy Homma, incoming director and president of the museum, is meeting on Monday with three members of the creative community – including two people who originally sent the letters of complaint to the museum – to further discuss concerns about the exhibit. An individual with knowledge told TheWrap that the Jewish attendees plan to ask for further changes to the exhibit, such as the inclusion of Jewish filmmakers and other Jewish creatives who were key contributors to the early history of Hollywood.

In addition, the museum is convening an advisory group of experts from leading museums focused on the Jewish community, civil rights and the history of other marginalized groups “to advise us on complex questions about context and any necessary additions to the exhibition’s narrative.” The Academy declined to share with TheWrap who would be participating in this group of experts.

Still, these measures apparently did not satisfy StopAntisemitism and its supporters for calling for the firing of its associate curator. The former president of the museum, Jacqueline Stewart, stepped down for unrelated reasons last month.

The permanent exhibit “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital” focuses on studio founders like Jack and Harry Warner, Harry Cohn at Columbia, Marcus Loew and Louis B. Mayer at MGM and Jesse Lasky and Adolph Zukor at Paramount, among others. The exhibit was created in response to criticism that the museum omitted the Jews who founded the industry.

Sharon Waxman contributed to this article.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Amy Homma is now leading curation of the Academy Museum’s “Hollywoodland” exhibit. That has since been corrected.

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