Scholars outraged after Jewish exhibit at Princeton cancelled over Confederacy ties

University cancelled exhibit of 19th-century US Jewish art because two artists had supported the Confederacy; historians say the decision ‘rewrites art history’

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY SPENT months planning an exhibit of 19th-century American Jewish art before cancelling the show because two of its featured artists had supported the Confederacy.

The cancellation has drawn criticism from the exhibit’s Jewish donors and consulting historians. They say the decision “rewrites art history”.

“I was really stunned by the university taking this position,” Leonard Milberg, the Jewish financial manager and art collector who funded the collection and whose name adorns the gallery where the exhibit was to be shown, told the Princeton student paper.

The exhibit was to feature the work of Moses Jacob Ezekiel, a renowned sculptor who also crafted the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and hung the Confederate battle flag in his Rome studio for his entire career, and painter Theodore Moise, who was a major in the Confederate Army, among other artists.

A famous Ezekiel sculpture known as Faith, an adaptation of an earlier work Religious Liberty commissioned by B’nai B’rith that celebrates the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and is currently displayed outside the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, was to be the exhibit’s centrepiece; another Ezekiel work was to feature a sculpture of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the founder of American Reform Judaism.

After first agreeing to organise the exhibition last summer, Princeton cancelled the show in December. According to emails first obtained by Religion News Service, the university’s vice provost for institutional equity and diversity had expressed concerns over the Confederate links and had asked for Ezekiel and Moise to be substituted for other artists.

FULL STORY A Jewish art exhibit at Princeton was cancelled over ties to the Confederacy. Jewish scholars are outraged (JTA)

Photo: Jewish sculptor Moses David Ezekiel (left) in his Rome studio with his statue Religious Liberty (back centre), 1909 (Public domain)