This Weed
‘The Day We All Hoped To
Founding rabbi unveils plans for groundbreaking ceremony
at new Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills.
E
Staff Writer
e's been waiting to make this
announcement for years.
Rabbi Charles
Rosenzveig, executive
director and founder of the Holocaust
Memorial Center in West Bloomfield,
strode purposefully to the podiUm sur-
rounded by architectural plans and
announced a groundbreaking ceremo-
ny for the new HMC on the west side
of Orchard Lake Road in- Farmington
Hills, just north of 12 Mile Road,
where the Old Orchard Theatres once
stood. The groundbreaking will take
place Sunday, June 23, at 2 p.m.
"That's the day we all hoped for and
that's the day that will mark a mile-
stone in world history," the rabbi said
at a press conference held in front of
the small HMC library in the existing
facility. It is adjacent to the West
Bloomfield Jewish Community Center.
June 23 also launches the capital
fund-raising campaign for the $17
million project. About $4 million has
been raised to date, the rabbi said. The
campaign will include mailings to
individuals and approaching founda-
tions and organizations, including the
Conference on Jewish Material Claims
Against Germany.
According to Rabbi Rosenzveig, the
current HMC, now 18 years old, was
the first freestanding Holocaust muse-
urn on the American continent. It has
been the catalyst and role model for
the other museums that followed.
the war, combined with the pits,
"The story so well done here will be
barbed wire and death camp gates, will
amplified," said architect Kenneth
be reflected in a more modern and
Neumann of Southfield-based
indirect way, implying those kinds of
Neumann/Smith & Associates.
ideas throughout the building, the
Neumann outlined the new site's
architect said.
plans, which will include a large drop-
The strongest feature of the design is
off area for school buses, a large lobby,
the elevator that "in truth, tries to rep-
a 6,700-square-foot library and the
resent the chimneys of
addition of a Museum of
the crematoria, which
European Jewish Heritage Below left:
Rabbi Rosenzveig
were probably the most
and an International
direct and violent
Institute of the Righteous. stands in front of the
artist's rendering for
expressions of that par-
Even the materials used
the new Holocaust
ticular time," Neumann
for the building will
Memorial
Center.
said.
express historical signifi-
At 52,160 square feet,
cance, he said.
the two-story structure
Right:
The cobblestone streets
Architect
will be about 4.5 times
and the general character
Kenneth Neumann
larger than the existing
of European cities before
.
12,000-square-foot HMC, he said.
The HMC board had planned to
expand at its present site on the
Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Jewish
Community Campus at Drake and
Maple, but the JCC was also undergo-
ing massive construction and expan-
sion; the two organizations could not
agree to a timetable. Last June, the
HMC decided to move to the 8.5-acre
site in Farmington Hills.
The HMC is slated to open in the
fall of 2003, said Rabbi Rosenzveig.
The new facility, he said, "will have a
profound educational impact that
will result in a strengthened sense of
pride and commitment toward our
people's individual and communal
value systems." El
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