Double Happiness: LA Gets Two “Major� Holocaust Museums
The Jewish Cultural Devolution Continues
As some of you may be aware, Los Angeles is lucky enough to be
(finally!) getting “not one but two major Holocaust museums.�
Of course, as someone committed to promoting Holocaustism and a death camp culture, both internally and for the world, I get a lot of nachas over this, and hope that every Jewish community sees the need to spend communal funds for two (or perhaps three or four) Holocaust museums in every city. Obviously, some of the smaller Jewish communities might only to be able to afford a Holocaust Museum AND a separate Holocaust memorial, but we should take our cues from LA, the city that has The Industry, and whose Jews know that, “There’s no business like the Shoah business.�
I am personally not willing to state quite yet which museum I like more. But I will say that the Museum of Tolerance has one heck of a gift shop, and that’s a pretty important aspect of the experience for me.
But still, some people aren’t satisfied, because WE aren’t thinking big enough.
The Forward’s Rebecca Spence reports,
Yona Goldrich, an 80-year-old Holocaust survivor and longtime museum board member who raised most of the funds for the memorial — he also contributed $1 million to the new building project — said that one Holocaust museum in a city the size of Los Angeles isn’t sufficient. “Even if you had 20 museums, it still wouldn’t tell the story,� he said. “Even if they built a Holocaust museum on every street corner in Los Angeles, it wouldn’t be enough.�
Oh, I couldn’t agree more. I personally would like to see all cities turned into Holocaust City-Museums in their entirety. Let’s start with one. Obviously, we will rename it, “The Metropolis of the Living.�
Please don’t worry your pretty little heads about elderly Holocaust survivors living in poverty (we will honor their memory once they are dead), or on the need for universal Jewish day schools. There is no need for general Jewish education when we can just push the Holocaust. Because unfortunately, the Holocaust still isn’t completely synonymous with what all people think about when they think of Jews or Judaism, and we need to change that.
So don’t let Hitler win! Help build a Holocaust Museum on every city block, and when that doesn’t do shit…build some more.
31 comments
Right on target. What a waste of resources.
As much as I agree with you on the bizarre nature of the holocaust culture, I’d like to posit a second theory for why “a museum on every streetcorner would not be enough.”
Despite how the history of the Holocaust is taught in schools, there was not one experience, nor one version. Many countries were involved, and many experiences: they range from hiding, to resisting, to ghettos to camps (and even within camps there were different types). I think that Mr. Goldrich is trying to say that a single museum, or even two, cannot encompass every experience, that they don’t “tell the whole story” because the whole story is huge and multifaceted.
Look at the new Yad V’Shem, they basically tried to include every type of story, and the museum is massive, as well as hard to process.
Mr. Goldrich was probably not saying that LA should be one giant Holocaust museum, but rather warning people against the idea that the Holocaust was a single and containable event.
My maternal grandparents were survivors and I agree with DK. My mother on the other hand will side with others. This issue is too hot to touch and I applaud DK for taking it on, as I have in the past.
However, there needs to be a middle ground. We can’t ignore this history as well as we can’t let it define our understand of our present. I could go on or just post to my opinion here.
lol DK good one.
howabout a museum about Jewish contributions to the world? That I would like to see.
Nice post. After the last of these traumatized old geezers kick the bucket, the only people beating the dead holocaust horse will be zionist propagandists and liberal whiners trying to trump black slavery with their own card of perpetual victimhood.
The holocaust WILL be forgotten, or at the very least, relegated to the back of old history books.
The only question is if it will take 50, 100 or 200 years.
Can we make a jewish MoveOn organization?
Annie,
Mr. Goldrich is unhinged. I don’t understand why we think that all the Jews murdered wanted museums in their name. They wanted to live, Annie. All else is speculative.
Mohammed,
A Jewish MoveOn organization is truly an excellent idea. There is no formal resistance right now to every new Holocaust idea and project. There clearly needs to be.
Lets start with it being taught in the UK again….then you can bitch about what people do with THEIR money
Mohammed,
“After the last of these traumatized old geezers kick the bucket…”
I sincerey hope you are not in the mental health field. Your excessive lack of empathy is astounding and saddens me. How pathetic.
On second thought, after reading Mohammed’s comments, I think somebody should build a Holocaust museum across the street from his home. I hope it blocks any sunlight coming into his home and that the vast crowds of school-children who visit the museum take a moment to urinate just outside his front door.
Jenny
Let me ammend that to “after these poor, unfortunate, traumatized old geezers depart to their heavenly reward” just for you. Happy now?
I don’t know the people involved, and maybe everything is on the up and up, but sometimes when you see something like this, there’s really something else going on beneath the surface. I’m just saying.
protesting sounds great. Maybe we should fly out to LA, and make placards when we arrive? What the fuck, blood profiteers!
“howabout a museum about Jewish contributions to the world? That I would like to see.”
GREAT idea, SJ. It would have to be at least the size of the Getty though, to do justice to just those of the last century.
DK-You’re right on target as always. It may take a while, but I plan to read everything in the archives of this marvelous site. If only the world had more Kvetchers.
howabout a museum about Jewish contributions to the world? That I would like to see.
The Museum of the Diaspora at Tel Aviv University (www.bh.org.il) has a lot of sections dedicated to Jewish contributions to the world (in addition to general information on the history and culture of diaspora Judaism). Sometimes these contributions aren’t appreciated by all, though. The last time I was there, an evangelical Christian tour group from Mississippi was going through. At one exhibit that profiled dozens of important diaspora Jews, a woman from the group noticed Karl Marx’s profile and exclaimed to herself in her heavy drawl: “Oh my goodness! Karl Marx was Jewish? Shame on him!”
Lets start with it being taught in the UK again….
Fran, I think you’ve been reading too many hysterical e-mail forwards from my grandmother. While there have been some problems with the holocaust being taught in the UK, the problems have been grossly overstated:
http://www.snopes.com/politics.....ocaust.asp
I would not include Karl Marx in a museum on Jewish contributions.
Would you include Jesus?
There are Jews who predominantly contributed to Judaism, and there are Jews who contributed to other things. I don’t think it is really in question whether Jews contributed to the world generally. What is less understood is what Judaism itself contributed.
What did Judaism contribute? Uh…
Code of morals that influences the Western world?
Monotheism (maybe not the originators, but definitely the distributors of the idea)
Heavy influence on two of the world’s largest religions?
TM,
That is understood, but what the Diaspora Museum in Israel does is explain Judaism’s accomplishments contributions more fully. Apparently, some Zionists have historically been prone to minimizing the accomplishments of the Jewish experience in the Diaspora, and glossing over that two thousand period including today.
“Monotheism (maybe not the originators, but definitely the distributors of the idea)”
Why do you say that? Who were the originators, then?
I believe some credit the Zoroastrians and others credit the Egyptians, but I’m not an authority and recognize that many dispute those suggestions. As a result, although I believe Israelites originated monotheism, I always qualify the statement.
As for Zionists being guilty of minimizing anything having to do with the diaspora, aren’t they responsible for the existence of Beit Hatfutzot - the diaspora museum - in the first place?
The museum was created by Abba Kovner. Yes, he was a Zionist, but he differed profoundly in terms of how he viewed the Diaspora experience. And Kovner had badass credentials. Leader of the Vilna Partisans and all that.
Aw geez, must you? Who do you think funds it and who do you think has supported it all these years?
TM,
You can’t compare the Zionism of the late 70’s and afterwards to those hard-line leftist-Zionist narratives of the 50’s, 60’s, and early 70’s, when THE answer and the ONLY answer to every question about the Jewish condition was the new state, and when young people were encouraged to all but utterly discard their Jewish identities for Zionist ones.
You’re such a kvetcher.
Some museums celebrate history, others try to relegate items to history. The first implication of a museum called beit hatfutzot is that the diaspora *is* history, as opposed to a viable community, or a viable alternative. Condescending would be a very mild term for that sort of attitude.
mohammed,
The museum’s permanent exhibit ends at the end of the 18th century, precisely in order to avoid such controversies or judgments.
my mistake then. if that’s true.
It’s true.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/p.....;listSrc=Y
The Diaspora Museum, which opened in 1978, portrays Jewish life in chronological order, essentially ending in Poland at the end of the 18th century. The display was designed by poet and Holocaust survivor Abba Kovner.
Holocaust historian Prof. Dina Porat, who wrote a biography of Kovner, said at the meeting that his design was informed by a desire not to go beyond the boundaries of the consensus.
However, this is not to deny (which I never did) that Kovner was a Zionist. Clearly he was, and,
As Haaretz also noted,
Kovner did, however, add a section on the establishment of the State of Israel and immigration to Israel.
There are numerous possibilities for that. First of all, Kovner’s main goal was to reach Israelis, who had unfortunately been taught nothing positive about the Diaspora at all, except as a source of pain, suffering, and terrible shame, and as having nothing to do with them. Additionally, there may have been political constraints in order to sell this idea to the Israeli public itself. Also, this addition facilitated Israeli visitors to understand that Israel was a continuum of Jewish history, not some sudden break. Now I know you may disagree, but try to be fair to Kovner, and the ideas he sought competition against.
It is clear that Kovner was interested in adding a positive understanding about the Diaspora and about Judaism. What he achieved was a great accomplishment.
This is a museum traditionally about Judaism. Not Zionism, not the Holocaust. Judaism.
OK I’m perfectly willing to admit I was wrong if I have proof shoved into my face.
Great post. I went to Holocaust Camp. Now look what’s become of me.
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