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'Michael Berenbaum' (b. 1945) is an American scholar, professor, writer, and film-maker, who specializes in the study of the memorialization of the Holocaust. He is perhaps most famous for his work as Project Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and as such should be considered the creator of the museum.
Berenbaum, who is Jewish, graduated from Queens College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967 and received his doctorate from Florida State University in 1975. He also attended The Hebrew University, the Jewish Theological Seminary and Boston University. Berenbaum received Rabbinic ordination (Orthodox) by Rabbi Yaakov Rabin at the age of 23.
Berenbaum has held teaching posts at Florida State University, Yale University, Georgetown University, Wesleyan University, George Washington University, the University of Maryland, College Park, and American University, and is currently Adjunct Professor of Theology at the University of Judaism (Los Angeles).
He is the author and editor of twelve books, including ''After Tragedy and Triumph'', a study of the state of American Jewry in the early 1990s. At present, Rabbi Berenbaum is serving as the editor for the 'Americana' and Holocaust sections of the Encyclopaedia Judaica.
Berenbaum co-produced ''One Survivor Remembers: The Gerda Weissmann Klein Story'', a film which was recognized with an Academy award, an Emmy Award and the Cable Ace Award. In 2001, Berenbaum was historical consultant for the History Channel's '', which won the CINE Goldgen Eagle Award and a Silver Medal at the US International Film and Video Festival. He was also Executive Producer of a film entitled ''Desperate Hours'' on the Holocaust in Turkey and on "About Face: The Story of The Jewish Refugee Soldiers of WWII".
He was executive editor of ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'', 2nd ed., published in December 2006 (ISBN 0028659287).
Berenbaum's wife is the president of the California chapter of the MPAA.