Alice M. Greenwald

Alice M. Greenwald is a museum curator and administrator, with expertise in history, ethnic heritage, and memorial museums. She was the president and chief executive officer of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum ( 9/11 Memorial & Museum) from January 2017 through early October 2022. In 2021, she announced that she was leaving the post. Greenwald began her affiliation with the project in 2006, serving as the founding museum director and executive vice president for exhibitions, collections and education of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum from 2006 to 2016. Before joining the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, Greenwald was the associate museum director, museum programs, at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., from 2001 to 2006, having worked for the previous 14 years as an advisor to the project. She is the founder and principal of Memory Matters, LLC.

Education

Greenwald has an M.A. in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a B.A. with concentrations in English Literature and Anthropology from Sarah Lawrence College. In 2007, she delivered the commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College,

From 1986-2001, Greenwald was the principal of Alice M. Greenwald/Museum Services, working for clients including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2007: she delivered the commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College. 2016: Bronze Prize in the 2016 Foreword INDIES Award, in the category of History (Adult Non-Fiction), for her book, No Day Shall Erase You: The Story of 9/11 as Told at the September 11 Memorial Museum 2019: She was inducted into the Manhattan Jewish Hall of Fame in 2019. 2023: Legacy Award from the VOICES Center for Resilience.

Books

Old Traditions, New Beginnings, Two Hundred Fifty Years of Princeton Jewish History, Princeton, NJ: Historical Society of Princeton (2002) The Stories They Tell: Artifacts from the National September 11 Memorial Museum, New York: Skira/Rizzoli (2013) No Day Shall Erase You: The Story of 9/11 as Told at the September 11 Museum (2016)

Selected articles

Reflections, Chapters 2 and 6, in 20+ Years of Urban Rebuilding: Lessons from the Revival of Lower Manhattan after 9/11 by Patrice Derrington and Rosemary Scanlon, Routledge, 2024 Foreword, Shoring Up Ourselves: An Inspirational Story of Never Giving Up by Robert Gray, Gatekeeper Press, 2024 “A Time of Transformation,” Point-of-View Feature, Museum magazine, American Alliance of Museums, May/June 2023 issue, pp. 14-16 Interview transcript, Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11 by Damon DiMarco, Santa Monica Press, 2021, pp. 473-487 Foreword, 9/11 and the Academy: Responses in the Liberal Arts and the 21st Century World, Cham: Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019 Contributing writer, “The Heart of Memory: Voices from the 9/11 Memorial Museum Formation Experience,” Museum magazine, May/June 2014, pp. 28-29 Contributing writer, Mémoire et Mémorialisation, Volume 1: de l’absence à la representation, Hermann, 2013 “‘Passion on All Sides’: Lessons for Planning the National September 11 Memorial Museum,” in CURATOR: The Museum Journal, Volume 53, Number 1, January 2010, pp. 117-125 Introduction, On Eagles’ Wings: A Decade of Collecting, Philadelphia: National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH), June 1986, pp. 5-12 “Ethnographic Approaches within the Museum Setting,” Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Newsletter, Vol. 7, No. 1-4, 1985, pp. 1-4 “The Masonic Mizrach and Lamp: Jewish Ritual Art as a Reflection of Cultural Assimilation,” Journal of Jewish Art, Jerusalem: Center for Jewish Art of The Hebrew University, Volume Ten, 1984, pp. 87-101 “The Mizrach: Compass of the Heart,” Hadassah Magazine, October 1979, pp. 12-13 “The Relic on the Spear: Historiography and the Saga of Dutthagamani,” in Bardwell L. Smith, editor, Religion and the Legitimation of Power in Sri Lanka, Chambersburg, PA: Anima Books, 1977, pp. 13-35; 2nd edition, 1980