NEW YORK—The Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, which serves as New York’s Holocaust Museum, has announced an international fellowship program for scholars, museum curators, artists and Holocaust educators supported by a $1,150,000 grant from The Vivian G. Prins Foundation. Vivian Prins was a successful businessman and entrepreneur who emigrated to the United States in 1938 to escape Nazi Germany.  

“The Foundation is proud to make this grant in honor of Bronia Brandman, a survivor of Auschwitz and one of the Museum’s earliest and most steadfast volunteers,” says Jerome Manning, president of The Vivian G. Prins Foundation. He continued, “If Vivian were alive today, I know he would be pleased that the Foundation can support the Museum and pay tribute to Bronia in this way. Her testimony has played a vital role in helping to educate tens of thousands of public school students and teachers since the Museum opened its doors nearly 20 years ago.”

The newly endowed Vivian G. Prins Fellowship Program will create residencies at the Museum for scholars, curators, visual artists, filmmakers, researchers, writers and holocaust educators who are emigrating to the United States and seeking permanent positions in North America.  

“In creating and endowing The Vivian G. Prins Fellowship Program,” says Michael S. Glickman, president and CEO of the Museum, “we will be able to offer unique opportunities to scholars and practitioners throughout the world, and at the same time position the Museum to stand peer-to-peer with other institutions that are elevating and defining scholarship, culture and education.” He added, “Prins Fellows will work with Museum staff to cultivate the next generation of thought leaders, transform the presentation of scholarship, and imagine new modes of content distribution.”

The Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust has thrived for nearly two decades along the waterfront of New York Harbor, and was created as a living memorial to those who perished, as well as those who survived, 75 years ago. Established as a place of learning and reflection, a repository for artifacts and information, and a catalyst for dialogue across all age groups about vital lessons of Jewish history, the Museum serves both local and global communities and creates opportunities for diverse audiences to engage with history and to consider its relevance to the present. Since 1997, the Museum of Jewish Heritage has welcomed more than two million visitors; it maintains a collection of 25,000 artifacts, photographs, documentary films, and survivor testimonies and contains classrooms, a 400-seat theater (Edmond J. Safra Hall), special exhibition galleries, a resource center for educators, and a memorial art installation, Garden of Stones, designed by internationally acclaimed sculptor Andy Goldsworthy.

For more information, visit http://www.mjhnyc.org.