When esteemed researcher Karen Franklin received a request for information about the Morgenthau family, one of America’s most influential dynasties, she never expected to embark on such a fascinating journey.

Join Franklin as she discusses her experience creating the exhibition, “The Morgenthaus: A Legacy of Service,” currently on view at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage. As her research showed, the personal histories of Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, his father, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his grandfather Henry Morgenthau, Sr., Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, illuminate well how the family has embraced the promise of America since its arrival in 1866.

Karen S. Franklin is currently a guest curator at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. A co-chair of the Board of Governors of JewishGen, she is a past president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) and a past chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums. Mrs. Franklin serves on the board of the ICOM (International Council of American Museums) – US and the Board of ICOM’s Memorial Museums Committee. She is also a juror for the Obermayer German Jewish History Award. Karen was the only director of a Jewish museum ever to be elected to the board of the American Association of Museums. A researcher on looted art, she has worked on cases in Europe and the United States.