- Museum of Tolerance
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Museum of Tolerance 
Location 9786 W. Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, California Type Holocaust memorials Visitor figures 350,000 annually Website http://www.museumoftolerance.com The Museum of Tolerance (MOT), a multimedia museum in Los Angeles, California, USA, with an associated museum and professional development multi-media training facility in New York City, is designed to examine racism and prejudice in the United States and the world with a strong focus on the history of the Holocaust. The MOT has expanded to Jerusalem, where a "Center for Human Dignity" is currently under construction. It is sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Contents
Los Angeles
The original museum in Los Angeles, California opened in 1993. The museum receives 350,000 visitors annually, about a third of which are school-age children. The museum's most talked-about exhibit is "The Holocaust Section", where visitors are divided into groups to take their own place in some of the events of World War II. These experiences are then discussed afterwards. The museum also features testimonies of Holocaust survivors, often from live volunteers who tell their stories and answer questions. People also get cards with pictures of Jewish children on them and at the end of the museum trip, it is revealed whether the child on the card survived or died in the Holocaust.
In addition, the museum features a "Tolerancenter" that discusses issues of prejudice in everyday life, a Multimedia Learning Center, Finding Our Families-Finding Ourselves, a collection of archives and documents, various temporary exhibits such as Los Angeles visual artist Bill Cormalis Jr's "A" Game In The B Leagues," which documents through paintings, the Civil Rights movement during the segregation of colored people in Major League Baseball, and an Arts and Lectures Program.
A classroom visit to the museum is featured in the 2007 movie Freedom Writers, based on the real-life story of high school teacher Erin Gruwell and her students. The museum was parodied in an episode of South Park called "The Death Camp of Tolerance".
Protesting L.A. museum expansion
Criticism
One of the primary criticisms of the Museum of Tolerance is that its exhibits use excessive multimedia technology to appeal to and manipulate the emotions of children. The museum uses fast-paced skits, dioramas, films, and interactive computer-controlled exhibits in an effort to make an emotional impact on visitors. For most of the tour, actual historical artifacts are absent, and a select few are shown at the end. Some critics have suggested that this is "hypocritical," likening the use of emotionally-charged media to the propaganda used by the Nazi Party during the Holocaust.[1]
Jerusalem Mamilla Cemetery
In 2005, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's (SWC) Rabbi Marvin Hier announced plans to construct a "Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity" in Jerusalem by destroying the historic Mamilla Cemetery,[2][3] a Muslim burial ground that goes back hundreds of years[quantify]. The project aims to promote tolerance amongst Jewish populations within Israel, including Ashkenazim, Mizrahim, Ethiopians, Russians, and others. Frank Gehry designed the new museum complex to resemble a fruit bowl; he withdrew from the project in January 2010.[4]
Criticism of destruction of cemetery
The MOT-Jerusalem has been criticized for being built on former Muslim cemetery grounds.[2][4] The Mamilla Cemetery contained the graves of many important Islamic saints and scholars, as well as several Mamluk tombs.[3][5] The SWC asserts that the cemetery was long ago deconsecrated by Islamic leaders, and that secular Arab leaders prior to the creation of the State of Israel had planned various development projects there.[6] This argument has in turn been challenged in the Israeli legal system, but the argument was rejected by Israel's Supreme Court.
While the location of the MOT-Jerusalem has elicited the most media attention, architectural, archaeological and social critiques have accompanied the project throughout its course. Haaretz architecture critic Esther Zandberg has critiqued the location of an ostentatious Gehry design at the heart of Jerusalem, arguing that Jerusalem is not Bilbao.[7] Others have expressed concern over the focus of the museum on tolerance amongst Jews, rather than tolerance between Jews and Arabs.[8] The plan has been severely criticized by both Israelis and Palestinians.[9] Construction had been stayed several times by the courts before allowing it to continue.[10][11]
In autumn, 2008, the Israeli Supreme Court cleared "the way for L.A.'s Simon Wiesenthal Center to build a Holy Land counterpart to its Museum of Tolerance on Pico Boulevard."[12]
On November 19, 2008 a group of US Jewish and Muslim leaders sent a letter to the Wiesenthal Center to halt the construction of the Museum of Tolerance on the historic Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem.[13]
See also
References
- ^ Marcuse, Harold. "Experiencing the Jewish Holocaust in Los Angeles: The Beit Hashoah—Museum of Tolerance", Other Voices, February 2000. Retrieved on April 12, 2007
- ^ a b Abe Selig (11 February 2010). "Wiesenthal Center: Museum not built on ancient ruins". Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/LocalIsrael/InJerusalem/Article.aspx?id=168489.
- ^ a b Donald Macintyre (9 February 2006). "Israel plans to build 'museum of tolerance' on Muslim graves". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-plans-to-build-museum-of-tolerance-on-muslim-graves-466028.html.
- ^ a b Saree Makdisi (February 12, 2010). "A Museum of Tolerance We Don't Need". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-makdisi12-2010feb12,0,1055476.story.
- ^ Asem Khalidi (Spring 2009). "The Mamilla Cemetery: A Buried History". Jerusalem Quarterly 37. http://www.jerusalemquarterly.org/ViewArticle.aspx?id=297.
- ^ Gil Zohar and Gail Lichtman (February 21, 2008). "Jerusalem deconstructed". Jerusalem Post. http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/jerusalem-post/mi_8048/is_20080222/jerusalem-deconstructed/ai_n47382495/pg_7/?tag=content;col1.
- ^ Esther Zandberg. Surroundings / No tolerance for Jerusalem's uniqueness" Haaretz, Last update - 21:29 05/11/2008
- ^ Samuel G. Freeman."Frank Gehry's Mideast Peace Plan" NYT, August 1, 2004. Bradley Burston (19 November 2008). "Dividing Jerusalem, one wall at a time". Ha'aretz. http://www.haaretz.com/news/dividing-jerusalem-one-wall-at-a-time-1.257479.
- ^ Akiva Eldar (30 December 2008). "Israel Prize laureate opposes Museum of Tolerance". Ha'aretz. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/israel-prize-laureate-opposes-museum-of-tolerance-1.260500.
- ^ Hadassah on Museum of tolerance
- ^ Zandberg on lack of transparency
- ^ "Israeli court OKs Museum of Tolerance's controversial branch" LA Times, 12:42 PM, October 29, 2008
- ^ Political Debate, Yes; Bigotry, No
External links
- Experiencing the Jewish Holocaust in Los Angeles: The Beit Hashoah—Museum of Tolerance, review essay by Harold Marcuse, Other Voices, v2.1, Feb. 2000.
- http://www.museumoftolerance.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=tmL6KfNVLtH&b=5052379&ct=9108283
Coordinates: 34°03′13.09″N 118°24′06.05″W / 34.0536361°N 118.4016806°W
Categories:- Museums in Los Angeles, California
- Museums established in 1993
- Jewish American history
- Holocaust museums in California
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