Legacy Spring 2016 The Florida Holocaust Museum Newsletter
Inside this issue of Legacy The FHM receives large artwork donation — p 4 Congratulations to our 2016 Docents — p 5 Join us at The FHM for upcoming events and exhibitions — p 6 & 7 The FHM announces partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation — p 9
Survivor Mary Wygodski Speaks with the Armed Forces Guard and Reserve, active duty and retired. That total includes over 70 Auxiliary members.
Walter P. Loebenberg – Founder Amy Epstein – Founding Board Chair Board of Directors Nathaniel L. Doliner – Board Chair Renée Walter – Vice Chair Governance Rachael S. Worthington, Esq. – Vice Chair External Affairs Amanda Saft – Vice Chair Internal Affairs Brian Katz – Treasurer Ann Piccard, J.D., LL.M. – Secretary Martin H. Borrell – Immediate Past Board Chair Board Members Renee Dabbs Anne Michelle Frey Housh Ghovaee Steven Greenbaum Michael A. Igel, Esq. Helen Levine, Ph.D. Natarsha D. Nesbitt, Esq. Walter P. Loebenberg Toni Rinde Janet Rodriguez-Rocha Lisl Schick Marti Hancock Simon Robin K. Warren Advisory Committee Amy and Bruce Epstein Eva Gerson Lois Pardoll Irene Weiss Mary Wygodski Matthew N. Gordon, CFP – Financial Advisor Michael H. Robbins – General Counsel
The United States Military will always be near and dear to Wygodski’s heart, as it was the US Military that liberated her in 1945. Last month, Holocaust Survivor Mary Wygodski spoke with the St. Petersburg Area Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America! The MOAA selected Wygodski to speak with the Armed Forces about her experience as a Survivor. The MOAA St. Petersburg Area Chapter is comprised of over 200 members from all branches of the uniformed services, including the
Mary Wygodski was born in Vilna, Poland where she lived with her parents, brother, and two sisters until 1941. After the invasion of Poland by the Germans during WWII, the Nazis interned her and her family in the Ghetto. In 1944, the Ghetto was liquidated and her family perished. She was the sole survivor. At the age of 17 she was sent by the Nazis to three different concentration camps. She was liberated by the 119th
Regiment of the 30th Infantry Division of the American Army in 1945. After being in a Displaced Prisons Camp (DP) in Belgium, she left for Israel (then Palestine). There she met her future husband and they were married during the Israeli War of Independence in 1948. In the United States, Mary and her family lived in New York and then in 1963 they established residency in St. Petersburg. Mary studied in New York University and Queens College. She received her teaching certificate in preschool education at St. Petersburg Junior College. Next month, Wygodski will be speaking to military personnel at MacDill Air Force Base on April 14th at 12:00 p.m. in recognition of Yom HaShoah.
Executive Director Elizabeth Gelman Museum Staff Aimee Alvarez Baruch Erin Blankenship Scooter Bontly Dallas Collins Garry Deatherage Mark Epstein Jan Hensley Jesse Jackson Maria Johnston Korri Krajicek Sarah McDonald Sandy Mermelstein Kelly Oliva Leo Plankensteiner Rick Riley Elena Sanderlin John Sanguinett Monique Saunders Elias Senoner Urszula Szczepinska Alecia Trauscht Frances Villarreal Kristen Wright 2
The Florida Holocaust Museum Leadership Council Leadership Council Rachael Worthington, Co-Chair Elizabeth Gelman, Co-Chair David Baras, M.D. Michael D. Bisk Frantz G. Christensen Benjamin Diamond Tony DiBenedetto Etta Donnell Ruth Ehrreich Carolyn Ellis, Ph.D. Judy Genshaft, Ph. D., Honorary Steve Gersten Louis Goldfeder* Gary Gould Bryan Greenberg
William Greenberg, M.D. Brenda Greenwald Rochelle Gross Adam L. Horn William F. Jeffrey Mary Johnson, Ph.D. Randy Meg Kammer The Hon. Nelly N. Khouzam Edward Kissi, Ph.D. Zena Lansky, M.D. John J. Loftus Mitchell Lowenstein, M.D. Catherine McGarry Nancy Paikoff Aakash M. Patel Joy G. Pollack Alan Rash Mary Anne Reilly Brendon Rennert Jack Ross
Marion Samson-Joseph* Calvin B. Samuel David Scher Mark Segel Debbie Sembler Jeffrey Shear Craig Sher Todd Siegel Gayle Sierens Tom Stanton Bonnie Stein Robert Stein, M.D. Linda S.Taggart, M.A. Howard Tevlowitz Dr. Mary Kay Vona Mark Wright *of blessed memory
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“I plant a lot of trees. I am a great believer in planting things for future generations.” Penelope Keith When I arrived at The Florida Holocaust Museum just over three years ago, the Board of Directors made it clear that technology was a priority. Not technology for technology’s sake but as a tool to better share the stories and lessons of the Holocaust inside the museum as well as throughout the state, to better help our schools meet Florida’s Holocaust Education mandate in a meaningful way. Staff was using older computers with Windows 2003 operating systems. The physical computer servers had no more room for large files or photographs. Our website was outdated and difficult to update. Our collections software database not only didn’t connect to the internet, it wasn’t aware the internet existed! We are so grateful for the State of Florida’s support for our technology initiative. It has allowed us to create the infrastructure needed to move about in our 21st Century World. The FHM has a beautiful new website created by Absolute Mobile Solutions. We have new computers, an up-to-date operating system, new cloud-based servers and updated wiring that allows Wi-Fi enabled exhibits. We have begun virtual partnering with other history institutions across the state and will pilot a Skype-based public program for adults – a facilitated conversation with a Holocaust Survivor – this spring. This new technology has allowed Curator of Education & Director of
Research Urszula Szczepinska to create two web-based interactive education guides: one in partnership with Paris-based Yahad-in Unum on the mass killings that took place in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust; the other a guide built upon The FHM’s own collections. These guides can be used as a companion to the exhibitions or on their own. What’s wonderful about them is (1) everything a teacher needs to teach a Holocaust lesson is included in the guide and (2) they are free and easily accessible on The FHM.org website. With new technology comes new challenges. Some problems are created by technical glitches or human error; others have a more malevolent origin. Our servers and website are targeted by hackers at rate that is well above the norm. In late January, our website went off-line and files were erased. It took weeks to get the site and all its content back up. But we believe the tradeoff is a worthwhile one. We have enlarged our IT staff and continue to put new security protocols in place. By the time this newsletter reaches your virtual doorsteps, Curator of Exhibitions & Collections Erin Blankenship and I will be on our way to Los Angeles to meet with senior leadership of the USC Shoah Foundation to discuss the details of our new partnership. You can read more on what can only be described as game-changer for The FHM, for USC Shoah Foundation and, most importantly, for students throughout Florida on page 9. In addition for being the portal for Florida into USC Shoah Foundation’s interactive educational platform, our agreement will allow portions of
The FHM’s collection of art, artifacts and testimony to be accessible in 52 countries. The FHM’s visual art collection will be a new feature for iWitness as will new arts-based curriculum. The FHM has long believed that multiple portals are necessary to try to grasp such difficult subject matter as the Holocaust. The arts can provide an accessible entrance or, if I can use a musical analogy, offer other overtones to the melody of the facts and the figures. I urge you to visit The FHM now while we are hosting a retrospective of artist Samuel Bak’s work, cocurated by the artist and The FHM Curator Erin Blankenship to experience the world through Sam’s eyes, complete with its imperfection, sorrow and hope. And speaking of the arts, a hearty thank you to everyone who helped support The FHMs educational programming through their sponsorship and attendance at our annual gala benefit To Life: To the Arts. You will find pictures of this wonderful event on page 11. Please be sure to visit www.TheFHM.org/ to-life-annual-benefit/ to view the full set of photographs taken and to download your favorites. Thank you for your support and advocacy as we move forward in creating a 21st century institution that will continue to share the legacy and lessons of the Holocaust in a meaningful and relevant way. Thank you for helping plant a tree that will continue to touch the hearts and minds of our children and our children’s children.
Elizabeth Gelman
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The FHM Receives Donation of Seven Artworks by Samuel Bak Last month, The Florida Holocaust Museum opened its latest exhibition Samuel Bak: A Retrospective of Seven Decades in its Janet Kohn and Larry Wasser Galleries. Unveiled with this exhibition were seven paintings by the artist which had been generously donated to the Museum by a Canadian donor. Over the years, The FHM has hosted five separate exhibitions of Samuel Bak’s work in partnership with the Pucker Gallery of Boston, which represents the artist. The Museum is also known for its commitment to collecting and exhibiting art created in response to the Holocaust and other genocides. The donor, who prefers to remain anonymous to the general public, refers to himself as a “Canadian who is trying to increase awareness of the reprehensible tendency of nations to commit genocide.” He was initially interested in donating his collection to a Canadian institution, but could not find one that met his requirements of having a mission dedicated to fighting hatred and the ability to care for the works for generations to come. He reached out to Pucker Gallery where he had purchased the works, who suggested The Florida Holocaust Museum for the works new home.
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The works included in the gift are (1) Nature of Self Evidence; (2) Too Soon, the Night (Late Afternoon); (3) Historian; (4) Reading; (5) What Has Been Will Be Again; (6) Undisclosed; and (7) Testimonials. All are paintings on canvas and currently on exhibition as part of the current retrospective. This donation adds to The Florida Holocaust Museum’s current holdings of more than 2000 works of art, and brings the collection of Bak’s works to seventeen. 6 4
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Congratulations to our 2016 Docent Class!
2016 Docent Class
For several weeks, a group of dedicated community members attended the Docent Training Class 2016. Participants received numerous reading materials and were provided with an overview of the key areas of Holocaust history that are represented in our core exhibition and traveling exhibitions. The class was a beginning of the new docents’ educational journey at the Museum with many continuing education sessions awaiting them in the future. Particularly important was the unique opportunity to work with Holocaust Survivors in order to be able to carry their messages to the next generations. Class participants met with Lisl Schick, Jerry Rawicki, and Mary Wygodski. It was an unforgettable experience.
Sessions were taught by the Curator of Education & Director of Research Urszula Szczepinska and Senior Educator Sandy Mermelstein. Class participants also practiced docenting on the floor with members of the Docent Council and learned from their expertise about interactive tours at our Museum. Now each of the 16 participants are going through their assessment sessions with the Docent Council Members. The next step will be co-docenting student groups with experienced docents which will give new docents an opportunity to learn more about different styles of docenting and the logistics associated with hosting various groups at the Museum. Very soon, new docents will be ready to lead tours on their own, which will be of great help during our busiest spring season. We want to welcome the new docents to our docent family and look forward to working with all of them! Our Museum would not be able to deliver its mission to students without this incredible commitment of our experienced and new docents. They are truly making a difference.
Congratulations to the 2016 Docent Class: Bob Barancik Michael Chambers Carole Eisenstaedt Mark Epstein Jan Hensley Steve Jewell Denise Johnson Mindi Lasley Lynda Lippman-Lockhart Margot Marcadis Laura Myerson Carnot Nelson Leo Plankensteiner Diane Sosa Dale Tessler Irwin Zweigbaum
Docent class participates with Mary Wygodski.
The Debbie and Brent Sembler Florida Holocaust Museum Lecture Series at USFSP:
A Talk with Mark Weitzman
Mark Weitzman, Director of Government Affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, spoke to a standing room only crowd of all ages about digital terror and hate groups in America at a program at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg in January. Weitzman also serves as Director of the Task Force Against Hate and Terrorism for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as well as the chief representative of the center to the United Nations in New York. The program was part of the Debbie and Brent Sembler Florida Holocaust Museum Lecture Series at USFSP.
Displaying a published document from the 1920s, Mr. Weitzman spoke about how the KKK originally vowed to defend and uphold the laws of the United States, or at least their white supremacist version of it. Home grown extremists adhered to what they perceived to be the Constitution up until the civil rights era. Mr. Weitzman discussed the rise of the Aryan Nation. In 1996 on the new platform provided by the World Wide Web the Aryan Nation declared independence from the “Zionistoccupied government” of the United States. With the rise of the internet, the message of hate could be spread more easily and rapidly. The move
into a digital environment, with many more platforms, makes digital terror and hate more challenging to quantify. Some forums have terms against promoting hate speech. If there is hate speech on Facebook, you have a mechanism for reporting it and having it removed, although Facebook admitted they don’t know the entirety of what is on their vast site. Weitzman has authored many publications and books and is a winner of the 2007 National Jewish Book Award for best anthology for Antisemitism, the Generic Hatred: Essays in Memory of Simon Wiesenthal. 5
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Woman in Gold April 7, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. The Florida Holocaust Museum The Florida Holocaust Museum is excited to present an evening with one of the co-counsel who successfully argued the Woman in Gold legal case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Don Burris was the senior attorney in the case, recently featured in the 2015 film Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren.
Incident at Vichy May 2, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. The Tampa Theatre 711 N Franklin St., Tampa, FL 33602
For the past fourteen years, Mr. Burris has devoted his career to the pursuit of art works and other assets stolen by the Nazi authorities before and during World War II. On April 7 at The FHM, Mr. Burris will discuss his work as co-counsel on the “Woman in Gold” case in a lecture entitled “Triumph from Tragedy: Restitution of Stolen Cultural Property.” This talk will also include other art restitution cases in which he has been involved. This event is presented by The FHM’s Lawyers of Conscience, underwritten by The Barry A. Cohen Legal Team, and will take place on Thursday, April 7th at 5:30 pm at The FHM. The cost to attend is a minimum donation of $25.00 with reservations required. The lecture will include heavy hors d’oeuvres, along with the unique opportunity to hear Don Burris speak about this ground breaking case and answer questions posed by members of the audience. To make your reservation, please call (727) 820-0100 x301 or register online at www.TheFHM.org.
The Florida Holocaust Museum, in conjunction with BroadwayHD, is thrilled to present the first public screening of Incident at Vichy, an original Arthur Miller play, directed by Michael Wilson. In Vichy, France at the height of World War II, nine men and a boy are rounded up under suspicious circumstances. As ominous reports of far-off camps and cattle cars packed with prisoners begin to circulate, the men battle over politics, philosophy and how to escape. After the film, acclaimed Broadway Director Michael Wilson and Vichy Scholar Brian Phillips will lead a post-screening panel discussion for this special one-night-only showing of the BroadwayHD filmed play at the Tampa Theatre. Emmy Award winning actor Richard Thomas will participate in the talk remotely. This event is free and open to the public. Sponsorship opportunities are available, please call (727) 820-0100 x274. For additional information, please visit www.TampaTheatre.org or www.TheFHM.org.
Yom HaShoah May 4, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. The Florida Holocaust Museum
Woman in Gold April 8, 2016 at 12:30 p.m. Temple Emanu-El 151 McIntosh Rd., Sarasota, FL 34232 This event is open to the community. Bring your own lunch and beverage. No reservations required. For further information, please email: dan@barwick.us. 6
Commemorative ceremony and candle lightning by Holocaust Survivors followed by a talk by Martin Goldsmith, author of “Alex’s Wake: A Voyage of Betrayal and a Journey of Remembrance.” Goldsmith will trace the experience of his grandfather and uncle aboard the “St. Louis.” Filled with refugees, the ship crossed the Atlantic but was turned back at every port. His relatives were eventually returned to Europe and to their deaths. Seventy years later, Goldsmith followed in their footsteps to bear witness and reconcile his own relationship with the past.
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SAMUEL BAK – A Retrospective of Seven Decades Presented in conjunction with Pucker Gallery February 20 – July 10, 2016 On display at The Florida Holocaust Museum, 55 5th Street S, St. Petersburg Born in Vilna, Poland, in 1933, artist Samuel Bak began painting as a boy in the Vilna ghetto. The first exhibition of his work was held there when he was nine years old.Mr. Bak and his mother were the only members of his family to survive the Holocaust. After World War II, they fled to the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp, and Mr. Bak enrolled in painting lessons at the Blocherer School in Munich. He and his mother immigrated to Israel in 1948, where he studied at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem. His first exhibition of abstract paintings was held in Rome in 1959.Since 1959, Samuel Bak has had solo exhibitions at private galleries around the world, with large retrospective Les Adieux, 1973, by Samuel Bak. Image courtesy of Pucker exhibitions held at numerous museums, universities Gallery. and public institutions, including The FHM. Mr. Bak has spent his life wrestling with his experience during the Holocaust, creating a legacy of testimony through his art.
Hancock Bank Presents Highlights from the Permanent Collection Forging a Wartime Life The exhibit presents an extraordinary collection of wartime documents - both forged and government issued - that helped the Rinde family disguise themselves as a PolishCatholic family between 1942-1946. The artifacts are greatly enriched by the written and oral testimonies of the Rinde family, wich provide robust narrative history.
Humanity Beyond Barbed Wire: Hitler’s Soldiers in the Sunshine State A history of hate, which included stereotyping, caused millions of deaths during the Holocaust. The treatment of German POWs in the U.S. and Florida during WWII provides an obvious contrast as many former German POWs look back on their experiences as positive ones. 7
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Lisl Schick Day at the Florida Holocaust Museum Lisl Schick is proof that one person can make an extraordinary difference! Lisl was recently named the recipient of the 2016 WEDU Be More Involved | Mason Dixon Award for Volunteerism. Schick’s award was presented by WEDU during the PBS station’s “Be More” Awards ceremony at Tropicana Field. In celebration of Schick receiving this wonderful award, The FHM declared March 1, 2016 “Lisl Schick Day.” Honored guests attending the ceremony included Lisl’s family members, Museum board members, and staff. Museum visitors heard Mrs. Schick’s inspiring story of a journey that began at age 11 when she and her 7-year-old brother traveled from Vienna to England, and finally to the United States, to escape Nazi persecution. Her life altering experience motivates Mrs. Schick to speak to thousands of students at schools and to school groups visiting the Museum. Visiting the museum on this day was the Barney family, which included four generations. The family’s youngest members were taken out of school specifically to hear Mrs. Schick’s story. “We took the kids out of school today because we knew this would be a very valuable experience for them,” said Jeff Barney.
Lisl Schick, Walter Loebenberg (The FHM founder), and Elizabeth Gelman (Executive Director)
Through her story, Mrs. Schick personalizes this period of history, making it more real and understandable for the students. Her message is that we can all make a positive difference by being an upstander and speaking out against injustice. Through the 11 years of sponsorship of the Be More Awards, WEDU has honored West Central Florida Nonprofit organizations and introduced new donors, volunteers, and those needing services to local nonprofit organizations.
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Rick Rappaport Richard Rappaport vividly recalls attending his first event at The Florida Holocaust Museum about 15 years ago. At this event, he was given a railroad spike from a Nazi concentration camp, which still sits out on his desk today. This was the beginning of Richard’s dedicated involvement with The FHM. “I want people to understand the significance of The Florida Holocaust Museum. It’s important that people support the Museum because it serves a great educational purpose. Schools can bring younger children to the Museum to see and learn about what was done in history to the Jewish people and other minorities, in hopes that it will never be repeated.” Richard moved to Tampa Bay around 1990 to start his own business called Panther Medical, a national medical device distribution company. He currently lives in Tampa and is very involved with all things Israel. In addition to his involvement with The FHM, Richard is involved with the 8
Jewish Federation, and sits on the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Board of Directors. Richard feels that everyone in the Jewish community, in essence, are Holocaust Survivors. His ancestors left Europe and came to the United States before the Third Reich came into power in Germany, and it was only by luck of the draw that his family survived, “I happened to have had grandparents who left Eastern Europe and came to the United States, otherwise I would not exist in this point in time. We are Survivors because our relatives just happened to leave,” said Richard. “The Museum is important in order to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust, so that we will never forget that episode in our long history of persecutions, and that the descendants of the people that suffered the most will never be forgotten,” said Richard. “The Museum stands as a very tangible reminder of what occurred in the history of the Jewish people and we should always keep ‘never again’ in mind.”
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The FHM Announces Partnership with Steven Spielberg’s USC Shoah Foundation! The Florida Holocaust Museum recently announced a groundbreaking three-year agreement with USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Photo by David Strick Education that will significantly extend the reach of both institutions’ educational work locally, nationally, and internationally. The USC Shoah Foundation is dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides a compelling voice for education and action. “Three years ago, The FHM embarked upon a technology initiative to digitize the Museum’s collections and upgrade infrastructure to support 21st century learning. We continue to be grateful to the State of Florida for their vision in supporting this initiative,” says Elizabeth Gelman, executive director of The FHM. “We have now reached a new juncture and will soon be able to share our resources in a meaningful way with classrooms throughout the state of Florida, the U.S. and in 52 other countries.” Students and scholars across Florida will soon be able to access The Florida Holocaust Museum’s digital collections of art, historical objects and first-person testimony. The Memorandum of Understanding between The FHM and the Institute - which is part of the University of Southern California - spells out the following key initiatives that, pending funding, are set to launch in July: Preserving the Legacy: The FHM collection of testimonies will be one of the first to be entrusted to USC Shoah Foundation under the recently launched Preserving the Legacy, an initiative that uses the Institute’s state-of-the-art infrastructure to digitize, index and integrate Holocaust testimonies taken by other organizations around the world in the Visual History Archive, the Institute’s vast repository of 53,000 testimonies.
The process will maintain the provenance of the testimonies as an important part of The FHM collection while at the same time ensuring that they will be preserved in perpetuity and made available to all worldwide users of the Visual History Archive, extending the reach of The FHM collection dramatically. Providing Access: Through this program, The FHM will become an access point for the Visual History Archive in Florida, making the 53,000 audiovisual testimonies available for research and education. This will make The FHM a leading resource for scholars and educators alike, and the 54th access site to the Visual History Archive. Enhancing Education: Under the agreement, the two institutions will embark on a number of projects that leverage the strengths of The FHM’s programs and expertise and those of the Institute. First, the initiative will realize the integration of The FHM’s digitized artifacts and substantial visual art collection into iWitness, USC Shoah Foundation’s educational platform. The addition of The FHM’s visual art collection will become a new feature to iWitness. As The FHM testimonies are integrated into the Visual History Archive, they will also be integrated into iWitness, providing more local resources for the Florida education environment, and also making those voices heard across all environments iWitness reaches. Leveraging The FHM’s leadership, educational staff members from The FHM and USC Shoah Foundation will work together to develop curriculum specifically to meet the standards and needs of Florida classrooms. Using The FHM’s testimonies, the team of education experts will build learning activities in iWitness, as well an offline activity. These branded activities will provide new resources for Holocaust education in the state of Florida, as well as expand the educational programming The FHM offers to a worldwide audience. Evaluating Impact: The program will also include a robust evaluation and research program that will contribute to a deeper understanding of the impact of testimonies and Holocaust education.
The FHM is Growing on Social Media Platforms The FHM is expanding our social media presence! During this exciting time for The FHM online, we have a worldwide cultural event called Museum Week coming up on social media platforms. Museum Week begins on Monday, March 28th and ends on Sunday, April 3rd. Although Museum Week is primarily a social media initiative, we will be highlighting various topics that the public does not typically get to see. We will be discussing Museum secrets, heritage, and giving early glimpses into
upcoming events. Be sure to follow along with us on social media using the hashtag, #MuseumWeekAtTheFHM.
“Like”: www.facebook.com/TheFHM, www.twitter.com/FLHolocaustMus, and www.instagram.com/flholocaustmuseum.
In addition to this wonderful upcoming online campaign, we are currently growing on all of our social media channels. If you do not already follow The Florida Holocaust Museum on our social media platforms, please do so today! You will find The FHM on all of the major social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Please follow along with us as we continue to expand our social media presence. To follow The FHM on social media, please visit the following links and give us a
We encourage you to post about your Museum experience on our various social media platforms! Remember to always use the hashtag #TheFHM when posting about the Museum online. This is a wonderful way for new visitors to learn about The FHM and plan for their visit.
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Committee members reviewed approximately 200 nominations before choosing this year’s Anne Frank Humanitarian Award Honorees.
Museum visitors from Visit St. Pete/Clearwater and The Treasure Island & Madeira Beach Chamber of Commerce.
Lisl Schick, with Museum visitors, at The FHM’s Lisl Schick Day event. (Read more about Lisl Schick Day on page 8)
Museum visitors attended a Genocide and Human Rights Awareness Movement (GHRAM) lecture by Dr. Phillip Kasaija, Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence. Dr. Kasaija spoke to visitors about Transitional Justice and the Rwanda Genocide.
Museum attendees were captivated by the staged reading of Bent, by Martin Sherman, produced and performed by A Simple Theatre. Viewers were taken back to 1934 Berlin, on the eve of the Nazi incursion. 10
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Artist Samuel Bak, violinist-composer Ittai Shapira, and The FHM’s Executive Director Elizabeth Gelman.
Nancy Lonschein (guest) views the silent auction items.
An original score and performance of violinist-composer Ittai Shapira’s The Ethics, which premiered at Carnegie Hall last spring to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Theresienstadt, and The Master Chorale Ensemble Singers, under the direction of Deah McReynolds
Artist Samuel Bak, the 2016 Loebenberg Humanitarian Award Recipient.
Rachel Worthington (Board Member), Toni Rinde (Board Member and Survivor), Josee and Samuel Bak (Artist), Bernie Pucker (Pucker Gallery), and Elizabeth Gelman (Executive Director).
For additional To Life: To the Arts photos, visit www.TheFHM.org. 11
55 Fifth Street S St. Petersburg, FL 33701
The Florida Holocaust Museum honors the memory of millions of innocent men, women and children who suffered or died in the Holocaust. The Museum is dedicated to teaching the members of all races and cultures the inherent worth and dignity of human life in order to prevent future genocides.
Visit The Florida Holocaust Museum 55 Fifth Street South St. Petersburg
The Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Student and group tours available. Docent led tours available with admission every Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. For more information on admission prices and visiting the Museum, call (727) 820-0100 or visit www.TheFHM.org.