ATTENTION
Museum Roles Vary
New interest in the Holocaust challenges centers
to rethink their purpose.
HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff- Writer
A
s the number of Holocaust
museums around the coun-
try has grown in the past 15
years, their roles have
diverged. Some are memorials to the
dead, others teaching tools for future
generations.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate
dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
in Los Angeles, says the reason is sim-
ple: "No one could ever tell the whole
story, not even with the latest techno-
logical advances." Whatever is selected
as an exhibit, he said, "becomes by
definition interpretive."
In interviews this week, Cooper
and other museum leaders and acade-
mics offered suggestions about
whether these museums should recre-
ate or re-interpret the Holocaust expe-
rience and why the events that took
place over a half century ago are get-
ting so much new interest.
The nation now counts a dozen
major Holocaust museums, as well as
possibly 100 academic centers and
foundations that research the Shoah.
The larger museums see their role as
educating a general population, not
just Jews, and so they are centrally
located. But most observe Shabbat;
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington is unusual in
being open Saturdays.
Cooper said the main focus of
Holocaust museums in general has
always been educational.
"The Jewish instinct since the birth
of our nation, going back to even
Mount Sinai, is we try to put historic
events in context and give it mean-
ing," he said. "It's probably more
important now that the millennium is
near to go back and teach the basics
that it was in the `50s and `60s when
you didn't have to explain to people
what a Swastika was."
Cooper noted that the Museum of
Tolerance, the educational arm of the
Wiesenthal Center, tackles two separate
issues — to retain the uniqueness and
the integrity of the story of the Shoah,
and to deal with more basic issues, like
prejudice, group intolerance and "what
happens when you cross the line."
Edward Linenthal, professor of
Religion and American Culture at the
University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh
and author of Preserving Memory: The
Struggle to Create America's Holocaust
Museum, cited educational, historical
and commemorative roles for
Holocaust museums.
Although these museums are a sign
of respect and remembrance for the
survivors, he said it is equally impor-
tant that they sensitize people to issues
of racism and intolerance.
"If Holocaust museums are in fact
going to be living institutions, they
can't just do the remembering for peo-
ple," he said. "They need to energize
people and make them sensitive to
these kind of issues, so that people will
take action in their own lives."
Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig said that
rationale underlies the expansion he
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ON
D.C. Search Nears End
The Holocaust Museum in Washington
could have a new director as early as
next week.
On Tuesday, a search committee of
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council
tentatively offered the job to acting
director Sara Bloomfield, who has won
high marks for her performance since
the messy departure of former director
Walter Reich a year ago. A final deci-
sion on the appointment could come
as early as the end of the week, muse-
urn sources say.
Recent reports about Bloomfield's
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her lack of scholarly credentials and
her inexperience in the world of
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administrator who has brought a sem-
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plagued Museum. They cite her cre-
ation of an Office of Survivor Affairs
and her role in developing the
Museum's highly successful traveling
exhibition program.
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