Mazel tov to Jewish cultural studies luminary Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, who has been awarded a Dan David Prize for 2020!
She receives the prize for “making an ongoing, groundbreaking contribution to cultural preservation or revival through research, conservation efforts or direct activity in the field.”
BKG (as she is often called) has long been a leading voice and activist in the promotion and study of Jewish cultural heritage, particularly in the fields of Yiddish and Eastern European Jewish life and history.
In 2006, she was asked to lead the development of the core exhibition of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in Warsaw, and continues today as the Ronald S. Lauder Chief Curator.
She is also a University Professor Emerita and Professor Emerita of Performance Studies at New York University as well as the author of influential books.
The Dan David Prize, presented by the Tel Aviv-based Dan David Foundation, annually awards three prizes of $1 million each “for achievements having an outstanding scientific, technological, cultural or social impact on our world.” The Foundation and prize were established by business entrepreneur and philanthropist Dan David, who died in 2011.
Each year specific fields for the awards are chosen within three Time Dimensions – Past, Present and Future.
This year the “Past” field was designated as Cultural Preservation and Revival — and BKG shares the prize in that field with Dr. Lonnie G. Bunch III, the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC and founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The Foundation writes:
Culture constitutes a foundational cornerstone of every society. It includes traditions, beliefs, rituals, artistic expressions, philosophies, mythologies, languages and more. It is dynamic, vibrant and in constant dialogue with society.
This fragile and impermanent heritage can sometimes fade or even disappear. Indeed, some cultures have ceased to exist due to social or political upheavals that brought about their extinction. Many groups and institutions since the dawn of civilization have engaged in the preservation and revival of their cultures. Museums, libraries and universities have been at the forefront of preserving cultures in modern times.
Reviving cultures has become common as a means to promote social ideas and weigh in on debates, from protecting minorities and promoting social justice to building nations and preserving traditional power structures.
With the accelerated pace of change in the global arena over recent decades – expediting the emergence of new cultures and the disappearance of old ones – the practice of cultural preservation and revival has become an even more important for humanity.
Read about the Dan David Prize