PORTLAND, OR.- After a six month national search, OJMCHE Board President Liz Lippoff announced that the board has finalized the appointment of Rebekah Sobel as the museum's new executive director. "Our search committee, headed by Immediate Past President Jeff Mazer, has worked tirelessly with a national search firm to find a candidate with the qualifications, experience, and passion to lead the museum," said Board President Liz Lippoff. "We could not be more pleased that Rebekah will be joining the OJMCHE community. She has a deep knowledge of collections management, enhancing visitors' learning experience, and strategic planning. This background is coupled with an education steeped in understanding the universal lessons of the Holocaust."

Rebekah will be moving with her family to Portland from Washington D.C. and will join the museum staff in January 2024.

Rebekah is leaving her Policy Director role for Museum Programs at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington D.C. Prior to her role at NARA, she served as the Director of Interpretation at the recently opened Capital Jewish Museum. A seasoned museum project manager and anthropologist, Temple University by academic training, Rebekah led exhibition development, collections management, education and visitor outcomes for the new museum. Before her tenure at the Capital Jewish Museum, Rebekah spent 10 years at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, leading program evaluation, audience research and strategic planning projects, as well as teaching at George Washington University in Museum Studies and Anthropology.

Rebekah serves currently on the board of the Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM) and recently left her six-year post as Treasurer for the Visitor Studies Association (VSA), a national organization leading and training evaluators and audience researchers from informal learning organizations.

"As a lifelong student of the human condition and a passionate advocate for understanding the darkest chapters of our history, it is an honor and a privilege to become the new Executive Director at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. To build on Judy Margles’ legacy, I am humbled to have this opportunity to join the Portland and greater Oregon communities in continuing OJMCHE’s commitment to confronting the challenging issues of our time – racism, discrimination, antisemitism, and the Holocaust – through education, museum experiences and community dialogue."

OJMCHE's Executive Director Judy Margles is retiring from the museum at the end of 2023 after a 24-year tenure. Over the decades this leadership included moving from a “museum without walls” to several Portland locations, the merger with the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center in 2014, and the penultimate move in 2017 to the current flagship location on the North Park Blocks. Under Judy’s leadership, in June 2023 the museum reopened, after completing a successful fundraising campaign, with expanded galleries and a new core exhibition Human Rights After the Holocaust. Among her many achievements and accolades, Judy was awarded the Western Museum Association's 2023 Leadership Award.

About Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education

The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education explores the legacy of the Jewish experience in Oregon, teaches the enduring and universal relevance of the Holocaust, and provides opportunities for intercultural conversations.