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The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History has named its new leader. Dan Tadmor, currently CEO of the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, Israel, will assume his new role in Philadelphia in January 2025.
Tadmor will replace current CEO Misha Galperin, who announced a year ago his intention to step down once a successor could be found.
For the last 12 years, Tadmor led ANU — formerly the Diaspora Museum, or Beit Hatfutsot — through a $100 million capital campaign for a major expansion of the institution, which is touted as the most comprehensive Jewish museum in the world. Before that, he ran the television production company Tel-Ad in Israel, managing partnerships with American production companies like A&E, Lifetime, History Channel and MGM.
He has never before worked in the United States. However, he says ANU’s donor base is largely American, which he will bring to the Weitzman.
“The two great Jewish communities in the world are Israel and America, so I am very much familiar with the story of American Jews,” Tadmor said. “The mission of ANU is a global one, so while we’re based in Tel Aviv there are traveling exhibitions, educational programs and digital initiatives intended for the global Jewish world. Many of our users, clients, collaborators and partners are in America.”
Tadmor has worked with the Weitzman in the past, most recently bringing an exhibition of artifacts from the Hamas attack at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. He said the Weitzman’s reputation as a leading Jewish museum goes well beyond Philadelphia.
“It’s a wonderful museum at a perfect location,” he said. “The story that it tells and will tell has never been more important, both for Jews and for non-Jews. The story of the Jewish people in general, and American Jews in particular, is a story that is evolving.”
The museum board calls on Tadmor to overhaul and update its permanent core exhibition, which was conceived about 20 years ago and has remained largely unchanged. Artifacts and items including Irving Berlin’s piano, Stephen Spielberg’s 8mm movie camera and a series of immersive rooms describing the history of Jewish life in America are on display.
“The world has changed since the core exhibition was imagined and implemented,” said museum co-chair Sharon Tobin Kestenbaum. “It’s time for our next ambitious phase, which is reimagining the Weitzman for a new generation in a very rapidly changing world.”