[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 115 (Monday, September 25, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1577]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       JEWISH HERITAGE MUSEUM ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. DON YOUNG

                               of alaska

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 25, 2000

  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to introduce legislation 
for the establishment of a new national museum in Washington, DC, 
celebrating the contributions of the Jewish people to the United States 
and to the world generally. The museum will be called the National 
Museum of Jewish Heritage. It will profile the role played by Jews in 
the aesthetic, cultural, and intellectual history of Western 
Civilization.
  The new museum will offer to Jews and non-Jews alike a source of 
knowledge and information on a people whose contribution to a world we 
all share has been remarkable, and remarkably disproportionate to their 
numbers. The museum will offer to all an accessible doorway into the 
many facets of the Jewish legacy.
  Currently there is no museum in Washington, DC, and few, if any, 
elsewhere in the world, dedicated to presenting the full range of 
contributions made by Jews over the ages, and the relationship of those 
contributions to the civilization of which we all partake on a day to 
day basis.
  There is, of course, the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. It 
is however, devoted only to a most taumatic and anguished period of the 
Jewish experience. The new museum would offer a balance to that 
uniquely dark narrative. I believe that it would indeed be unfortunate 
for the rich Jewish history to be defined by that tragic chapter alone. 
The new museum will see that that does not occur. It will do so by 
profiling the many happy chapters of that history. It is a history to 
revere, and to learn from, and this new museum will allow this to 
happen in the Nation's Capital.
  The new museum will accomplish its important goals by creating 
galleries that sweep from the archaeological artifacts of antiquity to 
contemporary painting and sculpture, to music, literature, cinema, 
sports, science, military, education and, in general, to the world of 
creative ideas. The museum would mount the kinds of exhibits that 
reflect the diverse involvement and attainments of Jews across history 
and geography--from Einstein and Salk to Freud and Marx.
  The proposed legislation makes it clear that this will be a private 
initiative. No appropriated funds are being nor will be authorized. The 
role of the Government is highly limited. The President will appoint 
members of the Board of Directors. Honorary members will be appointed 
by congressional leaders. Other national museums may lend works or art 
and other objects to the new museum. The National Park Service will 
assist the museum in finding a site in the Nation's Capitol, which 
could be provided by the U.S. Government. The legislation will, 
however, offer the recognition and appreciation of the Government of 
the United States.
  I am proud of the contributions made by the Jewish people to the 
civilization we all enjoy. I am all the more proud to sponsor this 
legislation.

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