The director of Berlin's Jewish Museum is stepping down following strong criticism of the museum's leadership by Germany's Jewish community. A statement Friday said director Peter Schäfer was resigning to "prevent further damage to the museum." There was no immediate word on a long-term successor ahead of a board meeting set for next week.
On Tuesday, Germany's Central Council of Jews criticized the museum after its Twitter account posted a link to an article about Jewish academics rejecting a German parliament resolution that denounced the Palestinian-led boycott movement against Israel, tagged "#mustread." It said that "under these circumstances, one has to consider whether the name 'Jewish' is still appropriate."
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The museum was recently criticized for the exhibition "Welcome to Jerusalem," which focused on daily life, religion, and politics in the city. Some said the exhibit was biased in favor of the Palestinian point of view.
Schäfer, a well-known Jewish studies scholar and the museum's director since 2014, told Berlin daily Tagesspiegel that he regretted the tweet, adding that the museum had never had the task of taking sides in political debates. In a second tweet, the museum said it did not intend to take a position against the parliamentary resolution but to point out the input from the academics.
Schäfer defended the museum's controversial exhibition, saying it was objective.
Last December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote to German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanding the exhibition be shut down. At the time, the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoted Schäfer as describing Jerusalem as a "place of longing for Jews, Christians and Muslims."
Netanyahu's assertion that the exhibition was pro-Palestinian and amounted to a one-sided "Palestinian-Muslim view" was rejected as political interference by Schäfer and Monika Grütters, the German government's commissioner for culture and the media.
Grütters, who chairs the board of the museum's foundation, said she respected Schäfer's decision to step down.
"All those responsible must help ensure that the Jewish Museum Berlin can again concentrate on its important work in terms of content," she said.
Central Council of Jews in Germany Chairman Josef Schuster, who earlier this week said the museum seemed "totally out of control" and questioned whether it could still call itself "Jewish," said Schäfer's resignation was "an important step in averting further damage to the institution."
