Source: eJewish Philanthropy
The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow yesterday hosted its annual candle lighting ceremony honoring the millions who died in the Holocaust with the opening of a new interactive center, “The War and the Holocaust: Thoughts on the Past and the Future.” The opening was timed for January 27, in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center pays special attention to remembrance of the victims of the Nazis’ unprecedented crimes against humanity, the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the personal stories of its witnesses. One of the museum’s main events is the annual lighting of memorial candles in memory of the millions of the dead, made even more special this year with the opening of the new interactive center.
Among the questions put forth in the interactive center are:
- How did people turn into murderers in this catastrophe?
- Why did the Nazis seek to destroy the Jews?
- How did the concepts of good and evil change after the Holocaust?
- What helped people to keep their human dignity under occupation and persecution?
Visitors to the center can hear answers to these and other questions via a video interview format featuring responses from famous writers, historians, and civic and religious leaders from Russia and beyond, including former Chief Rabbi of Israel Meir Lau, world-renowned authors Lyudmila Ulitskaya and David Grossman, leading journalists Vladimir Posner and Nikolay Svanidze, as well as thought leaders from outside the Jewish community including Metropolitan Juvenal.
“The War and the Holocaust: Thoughts on the Past and the Future” was created in partnership with Yad Vashem. The project was initiated and is supported by Genesis Philanthropy Group and will become part of the permanent exhibition of the museum.