The Government Shutdown: Bad For the Jews!
Holocaust Memorial Museum would be closed
April 08, 2011
Lobby of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.(Wikipedia)
Should the federal government shut down because of partisan budget differences, “essential” employees would continue working: President Obama would still be on call, and congresspeople would still receive salaries from your tax dollars (due later this month!). However, thanks to the intrepid reporting of Our Man on the Interwebs Dan Klein, I can confirm that among the “non-essential” government functions that would close pending a new budget is the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. “If the government shuts down the Museum will be closed to the public beginning Saturday, April 9th,” a Museum representative wrote in an email, “and no visitors will be allowed to enter the building while the federal government shutdown is in effect.”
The email added, “The Museum is America’s national institution for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history, and serves as this country’s memorial to the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust.” Sounds pretty essential to me!
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
