The Anne Frank Center Is No Longer Apolitical — And Has Limited Ties To Frank Family
Image by Wikicommons
By Aiden Pink April 25, 2017
The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, the small New York nonprofit that has grown in prominence over the past year due to its new executive director’s incendiary rhetoric toward President Trump, reportedly does not consider itself a “pro-Jewish” group — and has only tenuous ties to the Frank family.
The Atlantic reported Monday that, contrary to the organization’s claims, the Anne Frank Center was founded without any direct involvement from Anne’s father Otto.
Since executive director Steven Goldstein joined the organization in June 2016, the center, which is independent of the foundations that run the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and own the rights to her diary, has had 100% staff turnover, disbanded its committee of Holocaust scholars, shut down its New York museum and is refocusing on social-justice organizing.
“It isn’t our focus to be pro-Jewish or to be just a Holocaust-education [organization],” new board chairman Peter Rapaport told The Atlantic. “We want to use the knowledge of the Holocaust and go further.”
Correction, 3:38 p.m.: An earlier version of this article said that the Anne Frank Center “reportedly no longer considers itself a ‘pro-Jewish’ group.” In fact, they have never officially considered themselves to be a Jewish organization.
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter at @aidenpink.
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