New York’s Tenement Museum lays off 76 employees amid indefinite closure
Courtesy of the Tenement Museum Levine Family Kitchen
(JTA) — The Tenement Museum, which tells the stories of Jewish and other immigrants who lived on New York City’s Lower East Side, announced that it is laying off its tour guides and other part-time workers — a total of 76 employees.
The museum, like most cultural institutions in New York City, has no firm reopening date.
In mid-March, the museum had furloughed the workers, in addition to laying off or furloughing nearly all its full-time staff. A $1.4 million federal payroll loan on April 27 enabled the museum to bring back its full-time staff. But on Wednesday, the museum announced that it would be furloughing its part-time workers.
In addition to tour guides, or educators, the part-time workers include front-desk and retail employees.
The museum’s president, Morris Vogel, also took a 99% pay cut in March. He is being paid $25 a month in order to retain his dental insurance.
“Our educators make our programs come to life,” Vogel said in a statement. “They are an important part of the Museum’s success. We had hoped to avoid this drastic step.”
The museum’s federal loan period ends on Sept. 20, but it is hoping to avoid further layoffs afterward by attracting visitors and schools on virtual tours, and conducting outside tours of the neighborhood for single families.
The interior, however, will remain closed indefinitely. Other New York museums, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, have discussed reopening in the coming months. But the Tenement Museum consists of period immigrant apartments from more than a century ago — conditions that would make social distancing impossible.
The layoffs come a few weeks after another Manhattan Jewish institution, the Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center, laid off 32 employees and furloughed 40 others.
The post New York’s Tenement Museum lays off 76 employees amid indefinite closure appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
