Yasha Grobman Appointed Director of the Israel Museum

Yasha Grobman has reportedly been appointed director of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem haaretzending a long leadership crisis at one of Israel’s most prominent cultural institutions.

Grobman will succeed Suzanne Landau, who resigned in early January after serving as interim director since September 2023. The appointment follows a lengthy and careful search process by a committee appointed by the board of directors, the museum said.

Grobman has also publicly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and spoke at protests in Haifa against the government’s actions during the Gaza war. His appointment comes amid heightened political scrutiny of Israel’s cultural institutions and an ongoing debate over the role of museums during the national crisis.

quoted in a statement haaretzThe museum said its board of directors has adopted the search committee’s recommendation to appoint Grobman. Grobman said in a statement that he was “proud and excited” to take on the role and looked forward to working with the museum’s management and curatorial teams to strengthen its international standing.

Grobman is an architect and researcher who served as Dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology from 2019 to 2022. He has curated and designed several architectural exhibitions in Israel and abroad, and is involved in architectural planning, academic research and exhibition production.

Grobman takes over leadership of the museum, which has experienced continued instability since the departure of longtime director James Snyder in late 2016. He will become the sixth director to lead the institution since then amid ongoing financial pressures, shortened opening hours and reduced international activity.

Landau, 80, informed museum staff at an end-of-year party earlier this month of her decision to resign. She was appointed acting director after Denis Weil resigned in 2023 and later became permanent director without a formal bidding process, according to the museum.

according to haaretzThe museum said Landau will assist with the transition, but it has not specified the length of that period.