A major new exhibition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is now open. “The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do” offers an expansive and timely presentation of Holocaust history told through personal stories, objects, photos and film—many on view for the first time.
The 12,000-square-foot exhibition features over 750 original objects and survivor testimonies from the museum’s collection. Together, these objects tell a global story through a local lens, rooted in objects donated by survivors and their families, many of whom settled in New York and nearby places.
In keeping with the museum’s mission to educate people of all ages and backgrounds on the broad tapestry of Jewish life before, during and after the Holocaust, the exhibition features countless beginnings, middles and too many endings that make up the stories of “The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do.” Each room, and each object, contains generations of experiences and information about who Jews are, what sustains Jewish communities and what life was like during the period of European modernization, World War I and the political and social movements that brought about the rise of the Nazi Party. Within the Holocaust experiences of legalized racism and fascism, pogroms, ghettos, mass murder and concentration camps are instances of personal and global decision-making, escape, resistance, resilience and ultimately liberation and new beginnings.
The audio tour guide accompanying the exhibition, available for download through the free Bloomberg Connects app, features narration from actress Julianna Margulies, winner of eight Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe, and Eleanor Reissa, the Tony-nominated director, Broadway and television actress, prize-winning playwright, author of the memoir “The Letters Project: A Daughter’s Journey,” and former artistic director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, acclaimed vocalist and Yiddishist and actress Lauren Lebowitz are also featured on the audio guide, for which Paul Salmons Associates provided creative development (Paul Salmons, tour concept and historical interpretation; Leah Kharibian, scriptwriter).
“The title of our new exhibition speaks to our institution’s very reason for being,” said Museum President & CEO Jack Kliger. “Antisemitism and fascism are again on the rise throughout the world. Right here in New York, we have witnessed not only a surge in antisemitism but an uptick in violence and harassment targeting many marginalized groups. The time to speak out and act is upon us, and it is urgent. We hope ‘The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do’ will educate and inspire our visitors and honor those who perished in the Holocaust, whose memories are a blessing.”
“The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do” is the museum’s first exhibition to open in its core galleries since its award-winning and widely acclaimed “Auschwitz. Not Long ago. Not far away.” concluded last spring.
The new exhibition was curated by a team of esteemed Holocaust scholars, historians and museum curators that included Professor Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz, Scott Miller, Ilona Moradof and Rebecca Frank, and consulting curators Professor Michael Berenbaum and Paul Salmons. The Scholars Advisory Group included Dr. Mehnaz M. Afridi, Dr. Charles L. Chavis, Jr., Rabbi Sholom Friedmann, Atina Grossman and Paul Wasserman.
“Working on ‘The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do’ has been one of the high points of my professional career,” said co-curator Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz, professor and director of Holocaust Research in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. “As a historian specializing in the Holocaust, I have always taught my students, through stories and documentation, about what happened, and why it happened. Here, for the first time, I can actually show people how it happened and to whom it happened through hundreds of objects and graphics, most from the museum’s collection, via the stories of the people behind the artifacts, through wall texts and an audio guide, documentary films and survivor testimonies, all put together in a unique and thought-provoking display. The Holocaust may be part of the past, but hatred, and what it can do, are very much part of our present. This path-breaking exhibition serves as a stark reminder of what can happen if that hatred is not stopped in time.”
“Eighty years ago, on May 29, 1942, my great grandparents Berel and Sara Fish Hy”d and Velvel and Zissel Poltorak Hy”d perished in mass shootings alongside 287 other Jewish families (over 800 people), all of whom were relatives and friends in Yanushpol (renamed Ivanapol after the war), Ukraine,” said Eli Gurfel, a major donor. “I honor their memories with my support of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and the importance it places on diverse Holocaust scholarship to broaden Holocaust awareness and education. As Elie Weisel said, ‘Whoever listens to a witness, becomes a witness.’ Especially given current events in Ukraine, my hope is visitors will see this exhibition and come away with broader understandings of what happens when hate and bigotry go unchecked.”
“The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do” is made possible with leadership support from The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, The Oster Family, Patti Askwith Kenner and family, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation and Evelyn Seroy in memory of her parents Julius & Ruth Eggener.
Generous support is provided by presenting partners Peter and Mary Kalikow, The Pickman Foundation and Larry and Klara Silverstein and Family.
The museum gives special thanks to its benefactors Anonymous, Carlos and Malú Alvarez, Stefany and Simon Bergson, Campari USA, Michele & Marty Cohen, Michael Lowenstein, Manhattan Beer Distributors, Bruce Ratner and family, Wendy Lowenstein Sandler and Neil Sandler and David Wiener 189897, son of Moishe Chaim and Hannah Wiener.
Additional support is made possible by advocates Bloomberg Philanthropies, Breakthru Beverage, Constellation Brands, Nancy Fisher, The Gallery Educator Friends of the Museum, Eli Gurfel and family in memory of Berel and Sara Fish Hy”d and Velvel and Zessel Poltorak Hy”d, alongside 287 Jewish families who perished in Yanuspol, Ukraine, Marjorie and Jeffrey Honickman, George Klein and family, Charles and Leigh Merinoff, New York State Council on the Arts, Maryanne and Dominic Origlio, a Gift in Memory of the Sundheimer and Semler Families, and Laurie M. Tisch.
The museum extends gratitude to its sponsors Joyce and Fred Claar, Ron Garfunkel and Sande Breakstone, The Knapp Family Foundation, the Stephen & Rita Lerner Family, Scott & Debby Rechler | Rechler Philanthropy, and the Saiontz Family in Memory of Jack and Sally Feldman, as well as Judy and Ron Baron, Corner Foundation, Pete and Marilyn Coors, Mary Ann Fribourg, Jill and Peter Kraus, Sybil Shainwald, The Starr Foundation and other generous donors.
