The Museum community mourns the loss of Dr. David Shneer, a pioneering scholar who contributed greatly to our mission of educating diverse visitors about Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust.
Dr. Shneer was the Louis P. Singer Chair of Jewish History, and Professor of History and Jewish Studies, at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
His book Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War, and the Holocaust (Rutgers University Press, 2011), winner of the 2013 Jordan Schnitzer Prize of the Association for Jewish Studies and finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, was developed into an exhibition which traveled to the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in 2012 and 2013. The exhibition told the story of the Soviet Jewish photojournalists who captured some of the most riveting and powerful images of World War II.
Dr. Shneer’s other works included Queer Jews, finalist for the Lambda Literary award, Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture, finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, and New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora. His most recent book, Grief: The Biography of a Holocaust Photograph, was published in 2020 and describes the history of the world’s first widely circulated Holocaust liberation photographs.
Dr. Shneer committed his life to Jewish history, and his legacy lives on in the many people impacted by his scholarship and communal leadership, even after his passing at the age of 48. The Museum extends deep condolences to his husband Gregg Drinkwater, their co-parent, Caryn Aviv, their daughter, Sasha, and David’s parents, as well as his colleagues and students.