Spielberg Foundation Offers $1 Mil to Museum

Phone home? Steven Spielberg apparently has the number of the National Museum of American Jewish History on speed dial.

The director/producer/philanthropist's Righteous Persons Foundation has just granted the museum a gift of $1 million for its capital campaign, targeted for the establishment of the building on its new site at the corner of Fifth and Market streets in Old City.

The new five-story museum, being designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, is due to debut in 2010.

"We are pleased to be able to join a community of donors in making a grant to the museum," said Rachel Levin, associate director of the Spielberg association.

"As a foundation committed to helping to build a vibrant American Jewish community," she continued, "we were especially interested in the fact that the museum tells the particular story of Jewish life in the United States and, through that lens, the broader story of America."

Steven Spielberg

That story is building chapter and verse; including the foundation gift, the campaign is more than two-thirds the way toward its goal, raising $111 million of its $150 million target.

This grant from the foundation adds to a growing list of philanthropic acts that started out with Philadelphia philanthropist Sidney Kimmel bestowing the first gift in 2002, followed by such contributors as chairman of Comcast-Spectacor Ed Snider, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, Dr. Alexander and Lorraine Dell, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

'Stories, Dreams and Visions'
"The board of trustees is gratified to have the endorsement and imprimatur of the Righteous Persons Foundation," stated Gwen Goodman, executive director/CEO of the Jewish museum. "The foundation has recognized that we are creating an institution that will embody the stories, dreams and visions of the entire American Jewish community."

The new museum, according to a statement, has claims of being the "first and only major museum dedicated to chronicling the American Jewish experience."

Speilberg's latest gift is in keeping with his commitment to recording and retelling Jewish history, borne out of a reawakened interest in his own Jewish roots developed from his work in bringing the multiple Oscar-winning "Schindler's List" to the movie screen in 1993.

A year later, he set up the foundation, which receives funds from a number of Spielberg's film projects, and is "dedicated to supporting efforts that build a diverse and vibrant Jewish community in the United States."

It's all in keeping with the continuing impact "Schindler's List" has had on him. "I have not been able to leave it behind," he said on the film's completion. "Nor do I ever want to."