Back to the Future

For half a century, Rabbi Meyer May cultivated mega-donors on behalf of the premier organization dedicated to hunting Nazis and fighting anti-Semitism. And yet, as he reaches retirement and the firewall that kept the oldest hatred out of the American mainstream has collapsed, the arc of his personal journey has bent back toward his first love — Jewish outreach. 

Imagine you’ve spent a half-century building an organization into a world-renowned institution that does breakthrough programming, receives funding from the US government, and has branches across the globe. Over the decades, you raise more than one billion dollars. You’re on first-name terms with top figures in industry, and gain access to decision-makers from Washington, D.C. to the Gulf.

Then, as you approach retirement, the world undergoes seismic changes to the extent that the future of your life’s work is not clear.

That’s the situation that Rabbi Meyer May, the outgoing executive director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museums of Tolerance, finds himself in.