The Museum of Jewish Heritage’s president and chief executive imparted some grim news to just over 50 of the institution’s employees on Monday.

“Two weeks ago, I shared with you that the Museum was facing an existential crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic,” the president, Jack Kliger, said during a Zoom conference, according to a record of his remarks provided by the museum, in Lower Manhattan. “By now, you know that this crisis has forced us to make some very difficult decisions in order to ensure the Museum’s survival.”

Apologizing for the news, Mr. Kliger went on to inform the workers that 32 of them — more than 40 percent of the staff — would be laid off, according to the record from the museum.

In addition, he said, some of those who remained with the museum would have to adapt to “new roles or reduced hours.”

The layoffs, changed job functions and planned budget cuts of almost 40 percent were first reported by The Forward. The museum, which describes itself as “a living memorial to the Holocaust,” was formed with the aim of “educating diverse visitors about Jewish life before, during and after the Holocaust.”

An audio recording of the Zoom meeting that was obtained by The New York Times included questions from employees. One asked: “What, if any pay cuts, were implemented at the executive and senior management level?”

There were no pay reductions for executive and senior managers, Mr. Kliger responded.

The layoffs came as an especially severe blow at the museum given the accolades it has received for its Auschwitz exhibition, which went up in 2019 and drew more visitors than ever before to the institution.

Mr. Kliger said in the Zoom call that “as soon as we closed on March 15, we knew we would face financial hardship and began preparing for the possibility of layoffs,” according to the museum’s record, but added that the museum held off on layoffs as long as it could and would extend health benefits to those who were being laid off through Sept. 30, which was as long as the budget would allow.

The museum was not planning further staff reductions, he told the employees.

Mr. Kliger said that the museum had taken steps to shore up its finances, starting a campaign to raise money and obtaining a grant from the New York Community Trust and a loan from the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Mr. Kliger said that those who were being laid off included employees who worked in visitor services and who were involved in tours.

That was a reflection of the fact that even when the museum reopens, he said, it will not likely have as many visitors as it did before the pandemic, partly because of health and safety guidelines and partly because it plans to be open three days a week instead of six

That was steering something of a restructuring within the museum, Mr. Kliger said, adding that the institution was concentrating on virtual online exhibitions and developing digital programs that would help teachers instruct students about the Holocaust.

“The museum will still be the museum,” he said. “If they can’t come to the museum the museum will come to them.”

LONDON — In a decision that could further embolden European governments to take on large tech platforms, Germany’s top court on Tuesday ruled that Facebook had abused its dominance in social media to illegally harvest data about its users.

The ruling by Germany’s Federal Court of Justice, upholding a decision by the country’s antitrust watchdog, is a major victory for proponents of tougher regulation of the world’s largest technology companies.

The case had been closely watched after German regulators last year used a novel interpretation of competition law to rule against the social media giant. The authorities said Facebook broke competition laws by combining data it collects about users across its different platforms, including WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as from outside websites and third-party apps.

In Germany, Facebook now must alter how it processes data about its users. It was ordered to allow people to block the company from combining their Facebook data with information about their activities on other apps and websites.

The decision is a direct shot at Facebook’s advertising-based business model, which relies on collecting reams of data about people in order to offer more targeted ads. Authorities argued Facebook unfairly used its dominance to collect data about millions of users of third-party sites that use tools like Facebook’s “like” and “share” buttons, and an analytics service called Facebook Pixel.

Regulators concluded consumers face a false choice: Agree to hand over vast amounts of personal data or not use Facebook’s ubiquitous social media services at all.

Facebook successfully appealed last year’s decision when a court ruled that regulators had overstepped their legal authority. That decision was appealed to Germany’s highest court.

On Tuesday, the federal court said regulators were right in concluding that Facebook is abusing its dominant position in the market.

“There are neither serious doubts about Facebook’s dominant position on the German social network market nor the fact that Facebook is abusing this dominant position,” the court said. “As the market-dominating network operator, Facebook bears a special responsibility for maintaining still-existing competition in the social networking market.”

The decision on Tuesday may not be the last word. A lower court still must issue a ruling on the matter, a process some antitrust attorneys view as a formality given the high court’s strong-worded ruling. In theory, the lower court could rule in Facebook’s favor, setting up another appeal to the federal high court . Another wild card is German officials could send the matter to the European Court of Justice, the European Union high court that resolves many thorny legal questions from member states, said Rupprecht Podszun, a competition law professor at the University of Düsseldorf.

Facebook said it would continue to fight, arguing that it has months before it must comply and that no changes will be implemented immediately. “We will continue to defend our position that there is no antitrust abuse,” Facebook said in a statement.

Facebook is the latest tech company to suffer a regulatory setback. This month, the European Commission announced a formal investigation of Apple over its treatment of third-party app developers. Amazon is also under antitrust scrutiny in Brussels. In Washington, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are facing investigations by the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and Congress.

Germany’s top antitrust enforcer, Andreas Mundt, has long pushed for regulators to be more aggressive in taking on Facebook and other tech giants. He has argued that Facebook uses the data it collects from users to further strengthen its position over rivals, harming competition.

On Tuesday, Mr. Mundt cheered the court decision, saying data is one of the most valuable assets in the digital economy and must be a central part of antitrust enforcement. He said the court’s decision “provides important information on how we should deal with the issue of data and competition in the future.”

“Data are an essential factor for economic strength, and a decisive criterion in assessing online market power,” Mr. Mundt said in a statement. “Whenever data are collected and used in an unlawful way, it must be possible to intervene under antitrust law to avoid an abuse of market power.”

Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting from Berlin.