Melissa Martens Yaverbaum to Head Council of American Jewish Museums
The Council of American Jewish Museums, which represents 80 institutions, has named Melissa Martens Yaverbaum as its executive director.
Yaverbaum, who has worked in the museum field for 24 years, currently serves as the director of collections and exhibitions at the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City.
“This is a critical time in the Jewish museum field, a time to assess how we can better respond to communities, new potential audiences, and new topics of import,” Yaverbaum said in a statement this week announcing her appointment.
As a board member of the Council of American Jewish Museums for a decade, she launched a fellowship program for emerging professionals in the field.
Yaverbaum in her statement called the council “the key convener, advocate, and representative for the Jewish museum field.”
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
