Letters

Curating Assimilation

In her article "Freedom Riders: The National Museum of American Jewish History" (Fall 2011), Esther Schor says that at the National Museum of American Jewish History "freedom . . . becomes the key term for exploring the entirety of American Jewish life since 1654." After touring the museum I concluded that one could replace the word "freedom" with the word "assimilation" without changing the museum. With a focus on how Jews melded into the fabric of American life, there is very little in this museum that is particularly Jewish.