Robert Morgenthau and
Howard Rubenstein |
Robert
Morgenthau and
George Klein |
Robert
Morgenthau and
Ben Brafman |
Hon.
Hugh Carey and fiancée
Margaret Ahnert |
MUSEUM OF
JEWISH HERITAGE
To Build For
The Future
Remember The Past
Story and Photos by Tim Boxer
 HROUGHOUT
his crime-busting career – nine years as a U.S. district
attorney and now in his 28th year as Manhattan’s
district attorney – you can imagine the kinds of names those
whom he put away have called Robert Morgenthau.
At the seventh annual
dinner of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, held at the
Waldorf-Astoria, Temple Emanu-El’s Rabbi Ronald Sobel
called him “one of the 36 righteous souls of his generation”
for his efforts in founding the museum.
In the fall a new wing
will open at the museum, which will bear Morgenthau’s name,
according to dinner chairman Stephen E. Kaufman and museum
director Dr. David G. Marwell.
When Mayor Ed Koch
in 1982 got Morgenthau and real estate mogul George Klein
to serve on a museum commission, they were surprised by the
reluctance of some people to the building of a Holocaust museum.
As Morgenthau recalled,
“People told us, why do you want to remember the past –
concentrate on the future. But how can you build for the future if
you don’t remember the past?”
The museum finally opened
in 1997 as “our new home on the harbor.” The new Morgenthau
Wing will have an exhibit of American Jews who fought in World War
Two.
“We will not fail their
memories,” Morgenthau said. |
