The Boston Museum of Science is a major Boston area educational institution, which is widely visited by school children and adults from across the state. The museum promotes an understanding of science as an "entrepreneurial" force driven by the beneficence of the US state and private corporations, and the Museum consistently promotes US imperialism and Zionism.
As the magazine Science for the People (SftP) put it in an issue from August 1970, "The Boston Museum of Science typifies institutional misrepresentation of science and a disservice to the community it purports to serve...the Museum is a discriminatory mind-fucker -- particularly dangerous because children are overdosed with bullshit science." The Museum, they write, "is the child of education, technology, and capitalism." In those days, the museum showed a "disproportionate amount of NASA spaceshit. A whole room devoted to mock-ups of NASA, exhibits on the development of missiles and rockets, one whole case of tiny Amerikkkan flags and other souvenirs that our astronaut heroes couldn't sell on the moon." Such exhibits also contained information on "the direct support NASA provided to the military-industrial complex (of which several companies are Business Donors of the Museum)" and "the front NASA provided to the CIA in Cambridge." This imperialist propaganda comes with exhibits that did the bidding of corporations, like "an exhibit by the gas industry tells your kids how much it costs to drill a gas well," and "a strobe light exhibit [which] contains a plug for the manufacturer -- a local defense contractor." Such propaganda came at the expense of turning attention to real problems: "the Museum squats over the stinking Charles River but it has no actual exhibits on pollution. A good one might be to run a spigot into the river and let kids tap and analyze the water. There are no exhibits on transportation, housing, rats, Hiroshima, MIRV, or nuclear bombs and their effects."
This was in the 1970s, but the Museum of Science today continues to praise the wonders of the neoliberal, "entrepreneurial" science done in the Boston area, celebrating the fact that scientists work with the state and corporations to privatize everything, while producing countless start-ups. The Boston Museum of Science presents this neoliberal profiteering as beneficial to Boston area communities, and hiding its role as a force that promotes mass displacement ("gentrification") and US imperialism.
In 2010, The Boston Museum of Science ran an exhibit called "Israel Innovation Week." The exhibit was co-sponsored by The Consulate General of Israel to New England, along with the New England-Israel Business Council who also coordinated an educational exhibition as part of the exhibit. YNet News reported on the exhibit:
The event will highlight the groundbreaking developments being made by Israelis and Israeli institutions in clean energy, medicine, and technology. Visitors will be able to see Israel's progress on its plan to be the first country to have a majority of electric cars on its roads; efforts to be a pioneer in solar and wind energy; and thriving innovative economy ... The Alan J. Tichnor Memorial Event will conclude on Sunday evening at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Mishkan Tefila with a keynote panel discussion on the future of Israeli innovation and technology, featuring senior leadership from Israeli universities and moderated by Dan Senor, Author of Start-up Nation; The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle.
Through Israel Innovation Week, the Boston Museum of Science willingly offered itself up as a platform for the ongoing Israeli state effort to "brand Israel" as a a "start-up nation" and a hub of "innovation," in order to whitewash the realities of Israel's colonial conquest of Palestinian land and theft of Palestinian resources.
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In 2010, the Boston Museum of Science ran an exhibit entitled “Israel Innovation Week,” which highlighted "Israel's progress on its plan to be the first country to have a majority of electric cars on its roads; efforts to be a pioneer in solar and wind energy; and thriving innovative economy." The exhibit was co-sponsored by The Consulate General of Israel to New England.
In 2010, the Museum of Science ran an exhibit called “Israel Innovation Week,” which highlighted "Israel's progress on its plan to be the first country to have a majority of electric cars on its roads; efforts to be a pioneer in solar and wind energy; and thriving innovative economy." The exhibit was co-sponsored by the New England-Israel Business Council, who also coordinated an educational exhibition as part of the exhibit.
From fiscal years 2007-2020, Combined Jewish Philanthropies funneled $549,866 from its donors to Boston Museum of Science.
In fiscal years 2019 and 2020 alone, Fidelity Charitable funneled $1,906,119 from its donors to the Boston Museum of Science.
Paul Egerman is currently the vice-chairman of the Boston Museum of Science. The Paul and Joanne Egerman Family Charitable Foundation has donated $492,000 to the Boston Museum of Science from fiscal years 2003-2018.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $25,000 to the Boston Museum of Science in fiscal tear 2012.
Tufts University hosted the Boston Museum of Science to present to Tufts students at the university's 2020 and 2021 general career fairs.