WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders has served on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s board for 18 years, but hasn’t attended a single meeting — inspiring a bipartisan push to oust him, The Post has learned.
Sanders (I-Vt.) was appointed in 2007 to the Holocaust Memorial Council, which meets twice a year to oversee the landmark DC museum located about 2 miles from the Capitol.
Records supplied to The Post by museum staff show that Sanders, who mainstreamed democratic socialism with grassroots campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, has missed every meeting of the board since his appointment.
“There are two large meetings every year where people fly in from all over the country for it. But Bernie Sanders couldn’t be bothered to walk across the road in DC,” said fellow board member Robert Garson, president of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists.
“18 is a good number in Judaism, but not in this case,” quipped Wall Street executive Jonathan Burkan, another board member, who like Garson spoke in his personal capacity and not for the museum.
The council, established by an act of Congress in 1980, includes 55 members presidentially appointed to five-year terms. Another 10 slots are filled by leaders of the House and Senate, with five members coming from each chamber.
Garson and Burkan, both appointed by President Trump, are among the dozen signers of a letter asking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to replace Sanders — citing his non-attendance and repeatedly claims that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip.
“In the current context, with Jew hatred and Holocaust distortion rising globally, it is imperative that Senate-appointed representatives on the Council are fully engaged and steadfastly supportive of its mission,” the letter says.
The signers objected to Sanders’ “public statements regarding contemporary genocidal conflicts” and noted he “has rarely, if ever, attended Council meetings.”
“This is not a partisan issue, just common sense,” said Alex Heckler, a longtime Democratic Party activist and fundraiser appointed to the board by former President Joe Biden.
“[Sanders’] beliefs and public statements do not reflect the stated mission of the museum. Also, he has never attended a meeting in the years I have been on the Council,” said Heckler, who was the Democratic National Committee’s deputy national finance chairman during the 2020 campaign and survived Trump’s April removal of other Biden appointees from the board.
“Why take someone’s place who will show up? I just don’t understand it,” said Trump-appointed board member Jimmy Resnick of Sanders.
“He doesn’t care. It’s like a non-existent position,” added Resnick, whose late father Abe also served on the board.
Resnick added that other Democratic appointees have shown up for meetings, including since-fired Biden picks Susan Rice and former second gentleman Doug Emhoff as recently as last year.
It’s unclear why Sanders has not sought to inform the direction of the museum’s educational mission. Socialists and communists led armed resistance to Hitler and the Nazis and socialist Zionists, including Israel’s first president David Ben-Gurion, were important to settling and founding the Jewish state.
Schumer and Sanders did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did Senate pro tempore Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who might be able to make the replacement himself.
Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is one of 10 current Jewish senators and his critics say there are plenty of other options who could replace him.
Although the museum does not direct government policy, it’s one of the most important cultural institutions for Jewish-Americans in the nation’s capital.
Sanders is an outspoken critic of the Israeli government and earlier this month swore in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a fellow socialist who has threatened to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he travels to NYC.
The Vermont senator wrote a lengthy statement this past September accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, saying: “The intent is clear. The conclusion is inescapable.”
“That word emerged from the Holocaust — the murder of six million Jews — one of the darkest chapters in human history,” Sanders wrote. “Make no mistake. If there is no accountability for Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals, other demagogues will do the same. History demands that the world act with one voice to say: enough is enough. No more genocide.”
Anecdotal observations by board members that Sanders hadn’t been seen at Holocaust Memorial Council board meetings were reported last month by Jewish Insider, but the records supplied to The Post proved he never attended.
Sanders is not the only absentee board member with a day job in the Senate.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) has attended just two of the council’s past 10 meetings. The only other long-serving senator, Tim Scott (R-SC), has missed the last 13 meetings — though his record is better than Sanders’, with appearances in 2019 and 2017.
The recently appointed Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) hasn’t yet attended a meeting, but in April donated part of his salary to the museum.
The fifth Senate-selected position is vacant.
