By Guy Page
Sen. Bernie Sanders has served on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s governing board for 18 years without attending a single meeting, prompting a bipartisan effort to remove him, The New York Post reports.
Sanders (I-Vt.) was appointed in 2007 to the Holocaust Memorial Council, which meets twice a year to oversee the Washington museum located about two miles from the U.S. Capitol.
Records provided by museum staff show Sanders, who is Jewish, has missed every council meeting since joining the board, despite his long tenure and high-profile role in national politics, including his Democratic presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020.
Its website describes the museum as “A nonpartisan, federal educational institution chartered by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1980….the Museum’s permanent place on the National Mall is guaranteed by federal support, and its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by generous donors.”
Sanders’ lack of involvement stands in stark contrast to another internationally prominent Jew with deep ties to Vermont: former UVM professor and Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg, who served on its governing council, mentored its staff, and whose personal artifacts (like ghetto scrip) are in the Museum’s collections, with the Museum even establishing the Raul Hilberg Fellowship in his honor to support future scholars.