DOTTY 2024 Awardee Jack Kliger: A Living Example of Family Success

Jack Kliger, who took over as head of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in 2019, is in many ways the embodiment of the better future that his parents, both Holocaust survivors, dreamed about when they first set sail for America after World War II.

One of the museum’s biggest recent projects was the unveiling in October of “Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark,” a multi-media documentary aimed at kids nine and up. It tells the story of how civilians in 1943 successfully evacuated 95 percent of Denmark’s 7,800-person Jewish population and ferried them to safety in Sweden.

Kliger noted that the work is particularly important today: “As the number of Holocaust survivors decreases and we confront resurgent antisemitism, we must proactively engage new generations in the fight for a better world. Our charge is to inspire and equip young people to be compassionate citizens and leaders.”

Throughout his career, Kliger rose to positions near the top of Condé Nast, then CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Media publishing Car & Driver, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar.

But he was never far from his Jewish roots.

When asked why his family left Italy, Kliger said mirthfully: “Sex, my own.” Then he explained his family history.

His father was a resistance fighter against the Nazis in World War II. His mother was 14 when the Germans invaded her homeland. She escaped a transport bringing children to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, and eventually made her way back to Budapest, where a family friend gave her false papers.

After the war, his parents married when his mother was 16, and relocated to Florence, Italy where Kliger was born.

His mother thought of moving to what was then the British-occupied territory of Palestine, part of which would become the nation of Israel the following year. His father, weary of war, did not want to drag a son to another embattled land. So the deal was, if the sex of their child was male, they would emigrate to America; if it was a girl they would move to what eventually became Israel. Kliger’s birth sent them to Brooklyn when he was two years old.

He went to local schools, graduated from NYU and spent a few years as a public school teacher. One day, while living in the Gramercy Park area, he answered an ad for an advertising salesperson at the local newspaper and got the admittedly low-paying job.

But his publishing career was launched. From there, he went to the Village Voice and ultimately landed a job at Condé Nast. He became publisher of GQ, then Glamour and turned it into the second most profitable magazine in the company behind Vogue. His success eventually earned him a promotion to executive vice president of the company, then he was moved to president of Parade.

He was eventually recruited by Hachette Filipacchi Media to become president and CEO, overseeing Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and George magazine, started by John F. Kennedy, Jr.

Even as Kliger rose through the publishing ranks, he was involved with the museum, first as a board member in 2009. When the past president left in 2019, the board asked Kliger to step in on an interim basis as president and CEO. The now 77-year-old executive has been there ever since.

Shortly after arriving, he oversaw the opening of the 2019 exhibit, “Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away” which ran until 2021 and steered the museum through the pandemic. Attendance is rebounding, although still not quite to pre-pandemic levels. He is happy to note that the majority of visitors today are not Jewish.

He says it is important that the museum occupies the site on Battery Place overlooking Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

“New York is the city where most Jews came when they first arrived in America,” he said. “and many of their descendants still live in the greater metropolitan area.” Kliger has two grown children and lives with his wife, Amy, in Manhattan.

The job has long since ceased being interim, and he is not planning a retirement anytime soon. “I expect to be here for a few more years,” he said.

In addition to his work with the museum, Kliger is also on the board of directors for the Circle of Generosity, which awards funds to those in need, asking only that the recipient return the favor by giving back at some point–much as Kliger has done his entire life.