Biden congratulates Israeli museum reopening after 11-year renovation

President Biden congratulated the leadership of the ANU-Museum of the Jewish People on its planned reopening Wednesday amid the coronavirus pandemic, and after 11 years of remodeling and expansion.

“The Jewish people and their history have always held a special place in my heart. Over the course of my career, I’ve had the honor to meet and work with every Israeli Prime Minister since Golda Meir,” Biden wrote to Alfred Moses, co-chair of the museum’s board of governors, in the Feb. 26 letter.

“I’ve been lucky to form friendships with, and to learn from, great Jewish leaders like [former Rep.] Tom Lantos [R-Calif.] and Zack Budryk Elie Wiesel. And all these experiences continue to shape me as President of the United States,” he added. “The United States and Israel are great partners, and the bond between our two countries remains unbreakable today, as it has been since 11 minutes after Israel’s founding, when the United States became the first nation in the world to recognize it.”

The museum was first established by the World Jewish Congress in 1959 as the Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora. Moses, the former U.S. ambassador to Romania, serves on the board of governors with Biden’s former Senate colleague Joe Lieberman and former Israeli Air Force commander Major Gen. (Ret.) Eitan Ben Eliyahu.

The decade-long remodeling is projected to increase the museum’s gallery space more than three-fold to 72,000 square feet, according to the museum.

—Updated at 3:39 p.m.