The Wing Luke Museum in Seattle agreed to remove a Jewish exhibit on antisemitism at the behest of Jewish groups due to dozens of their own staffers walking out in protest over it, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported Wednesday.
The staffers wrote on Instagram back in May that the exhibit, called “Confronting Hate Together,” employed “Zionist language.” The claimed that it “sets a dangerous precedent of platforming colonial, white supremacist perspectives and goes against the Museum’s mission as a community-based museum advancing racial and social equity.”
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The pro-Palestinian staffers argued that the exhibit conflated “anti-Zionism as antisemitism” and that despite attempts to revise the piece, “the edits made still conveyed Zionist perspectives.” The staffers said they would be withholding their labor in protest of the exhibit. The protest forced the museum to close down, the JTA reported. (RELATED: Police Arrest Man For Setting Fire Outside Jewish Museum, Say He Has Burning History)
Seattle Jews will remount an antisemitism exhibit alone, months after museum staff shut it down over ‘Zionist perspectives’ https://t.co/lMwGz0rRJ9
— JTA | Jewish news (@JTAnews) August 21, 2024
The Washington State Jewish Historical Society and Jewish Community Relations Council expressed their “great disappointment, pain, and sadness” over the fact that the exhibit will not be shown to the public at the Wing Luke Museum in a press statement. “Immense harm has been caused to the Jewish community by not being able to show the exhibit. The anti-Jewish ideas and attitudes that fueled the WLM employee walkout (whether conscious or not) have yet to be adequately acknowledged,” the joint statement reads.
“Hate has won,” the groups declare. The Jewish organizations add that the exhibit is slated to be shown next month at a “special event.”
Wing Luke Museum spokesman Steve McLean told The Cholent, an independent media outlet, that the museum had not expected the exhibit to be withdrawn.
“We are naturally disappointed that the Jewish Historical Society felt they needed to do that,” McLean reportedly said. “I’m still processing this and trying to evaluate what this means.”