Yitzchak Mais

Yitzchak Mais
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Born	(1952-08-18) August 18, 1952
Education	Lehman College
Alma mater	Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Occupation	Lecturer Director

Yitzchak Mais was born on August 18, 1952, in the United States to Holocaust survivors. Commonly known as Itzik Mais, he has become “a world-renowned Holocaust authority” by helping to develop and curate numerous Holocaust museums around the world. Mais is best known for being the director of Yad Vashem’s historical museum (1983–1995) and for his path-breaking approach at New York's Holocaust memorial, Museum of Jewish Heritage (MJH).

Early years and move to Israel

Raised in the Bronx, New York City, Mais studied at modern-orthodox schools and then attended Lehman College, where he studied history and then did his graduate studies in the Holocaust at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under such luminaries as professors Yehuda Bauer and George Mosse.

Just months after graduating from college and getting married, Yitzchak and Vicky Mais moved to Israel, known as “making aliyah,” in 1973. Most of Yitzchak’s family on his mother’s side, who had survived in Siberia, had already settled in Israel after World War II. The move was a life-changing event for the couple. As Yitzchak told The Jerusalem Post in a recent interview regarding Israel’s place in the world “It’s international realpolitik, and there is only one country where the Jews will be the top priority.”

Career

Yitzchak took up work as a lecturer at Yad Vashem and then served as director of the Yad Vashem Historical Museum from 1983 to 1995.

Mais was founding chief curator of the original permanent exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York and served as its project director from 1995 to 1998. He also curated MJH’s Special Exhibition, Daring To Resist—Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust. The exhibition opened at MJH in 2007 and was one of four exhibitions honored in the Excellence in Exhibition Competition, awarded by the American Association of Museums (AAM) in 2008.

He has since worked on Holocaust museums and film projects around the world, including in Jerusalem, Kiev, Montreal, Moscow, Skopje, New York and Budapest. Today, Mais is the lead curator of Hungary’s Holocaust museum, the House of Fates, in Budapest, expected to open to the public in 2023.

Representing the Holocaust

Mais has become “a world-renowned Holocaust authority” perhaps in large part due to the attention he has given to how the subject is presented to the general public, Jews and non-Jews. Back in 1987, Mais spoke to JTA about “Americanizing the Holocaust.”

Nor should Israel’s right to exist ever be based on the Holocaust, as this “obliterates Zionism,” a cause Jews had been working on since well before the Holocaust.

As curator of the Montreal Holocaust Museum, which opened in 2003, Mais told JTA: “We took great pains to use the artifacts of Montreal survivors,” and “over 95 percent were locally donated.”

Critics have maintained the plans for the Hungarian Holocaust museum make it look like “an adventure park.” Mais noted in Neokohn.hu that there was no need to make a Holocaust exhibit too brutal, as nobody will ever understand what those in the death camps actually experienced. Mais’ dedication to connecting with the viewer for a more meaningful takeaway was something he has championed from the beginning at MJH: “The Museum’s innovative approach of highlighting Human history, with a capital ‘H’, tells the particular Jewish story with universal relevance for all audiences.”

Controversies surrounding House of Fates

In 2018, when the Hungarian government handed the House of Fates over to the Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities (EMIH), a new steering committee was set up, led by Mais. This was in response to concerns that the previous involvement of Maria Schmidt had taken the museum in a direction that appeared to whitewash Hungary’s involvement in the deportation of Jews, as well as its own persecution of Jews in Hungary prior to the Nazi occupation.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post in 2019, Mais says: “We make it very clear that the background and social context – similar to many other European countries – had already been there before the Nazis occupied Hungary.” Mais says the museum will also raise awareness to “who risked their lives to try and help Jews."

After some pushback to initial plans leaked after EMIH took over, Mais expressed his confusion as to why parties in Hungary who had issues with the preliminary plans did not, like on his many other projects, simply speak up instead of complaining to the press. Mais told Neokohn.hu the document leaked was “a working copy.” But he also added, “I don’t want to be popular, I want to be authentic,” insisting that the House of Fates will be “different than any other museum.”

Outside interests

Mais is known to love basketball and was consulting curator to the new Basketball Hall of Fame Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts. His passion is apparently not only as an outsider, as he mentioned to The Jerusalem Post “with great pride that he scored 15 points in his high school championship game at Madison Square Garden in New York.”

Personal life

Yitzchak has been married to his wife Vicky since 1973; together they have two children, Gidon and Ilana, and 11 grandchildren.

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