Trump Administration Fires 5 Last-Minute Biden Appointees to U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council

The Trump Administration has dismissed five Biden appointees who were serving 5-year terms on the 68-member United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Those dismissed were among 12 individuals appointed to vacancies on the Council by President Biden just days before his term of office ended. The Council serves as the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The highest profile dismissal was that of Doug Emhoff, former First Gentleman who took a prominent role in fighting antisemitism during the Biden Administration. CNN reports on additional firings:

Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain; Anthony Bernal, a senior adviser to former first lady Jill Biden; Jennifer Klein, a former director of the White House Gender Policy Council; and Susan Rice, who served as a domestic policy adviser to Joe Biden and helped develop his administration’s strategy to combat antisemitism, were among the other Biden appointees who were fired from the board, sources familiar with the matter said....

Not all Biden-era appointees have received emails notifying them of their dismissal, according to one Biden appointee who sits on the board.

Turkey's President Converts Hagia Sophia Museum Back Into A Mosque

AP reports on the controversial move by Turkey's President to change the status of a UNESCO World Heritage site:

The president of Turkey on Friday formally reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open for Muslim worship....

The decision sparked deep dismay among Orthodox Christians. Originally a cathedral, Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque after Istanbul's conquest by the Ottoman Empire but had been a museum for the last 86 years, drawing millions of tourists annually.....

Turkey's high administrative court threw its weight behind a petition brought by a religious group and annulled the 1934 Cabinet decision that turned the site into a museum. Within hours, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree handing over Hagia Sophia to Turkey's Religious Affairs Presidency.

Elaborate Museum of The Bible Opens In D.C. Today

Washington Post reports that the new $500 million privately-funded Museum of the Bible opens in Washington, D.C. today.  The museum has been created by the Green family, owners of the Hobby Lobby retail chain.  Located on a site near the Mall in southwest Washington, the Museum focuses the importance of the Bible, Biblical history and the place of the Bible in U.S. history.  The Post says that the Museum "will set a new standard" for fusion of entertainment and education. It summarizes:

The Bible Museum has come to town, in all its technical splendor, bearing with it something that most historians and museum professionals may have thought was long discredited: the "master narrative" idea of history, that there is one sweeping human story that needs to be told, a story that is still unfolding and carrying us along with it. It tells this seductive story well, in many places with factual accuracy, and always with an eye to clarity and entertainment. It is an exciting idea, and an enormously powerful tool for making sense of the world.

Unless, of course, you don’t believe it.

Smithsonian Gets Curator of American Religious History

The Washington Post reported last week that the Smithsonian Institution for the first time since the 1890's has hired a Curator of American Religious History.  The post is held by Peter Manseau, the son of a former nun and a priest. (Background.) Funded by a $5 million grant from the Lilly Foundation, Manseau will curate new exhibits on American religious history and add important religious objects to the museum’s collections.  He is planning a 5-year series of events and exhibitions, the first of which will open in June 2017 at the National Museum of American History in Washington.

New Museum of the Bible Being Built In Washington, D.C.

A privately financed $400 million Museum of the Bible is being constructed in Washington, D.C. according to a report today from Haaretz. The Museum, which will be located three blocks from the U.S. Capitol in a historic warehouse that is being extensively renovated, is being built by Steve and Jackie Green, owners of Hobby Lobby stores.  It will house the 40,000 item collection of rare printed Bibles, manuscripts, Torahs and Dead Sea scroll fragments belonging to the Greens who are Southern Baptists. The Museum will feature permanent exhibits focusing on the impact, history and narrative of the Bible, as well as rotating displays. Scheduled to open in November 2017, the Museum plans to collaborate with Jewish organizations.