From the President
What do people say about us? “We have been to many Holocaust museums. This is the best.” “It made us feel as though we were there.” “We learned more here about the Holocaust than at any other museum.” How did all this happen? Let me start at the beginning. One morning, Al Rosenbaum and Mark Fetter came to my office on Cary Street, at American Parts Co., and said to me. “Let’s start a Holocaust museum.” My reply? “You guys are crazy! We have the best one in Washington. What do we need one here for?.” Well the rest, if you want to know...just call me for the details. Al Rosenbaum is an artist, with a fantastic eye. We had no money for anything, so we looked for volunteers. In preparing our old site, Mark Fetter got more paint on him than on the walls - but soon we found skillful volunteers, and the museum took off. We could not accommodate the requests for tours. On a recommendation from a friend I heard about 2000 East Cary St., and with Congressman Eric Cantors’ help (who was then a state legislator) the State of Virginia legislature voted to give us the old Climax Building warehouse that once belonged to American Tobacco. There were a lot of legal issues, so I turned to Jay M. Weinberg, a long-time friend of my Fathers’, “of blessed memory”. Jay, for those that don’t already know, is the top real-estate legal expert in Virginia. Of course we didn’t have $100.00 to spare, and only one paid staff person whose salary was paid for by Neil November, Selma Brown and the Richmond Jewish Federation. I told Jay our predicament, and he said, “There will be no fees for the legal work, but you are going to need a parking lot, the city will require it.” My reply was “You are the best there is, please work it out. We don’t have any money.” There was a lot across from the building that at one time was Smith Junk yard. They wanted $350,000 for it. I left Jay’s office, not the happiest of campers, and headed back to 213 Roseneath Rd., where the old museum was located. This was on a Thursday. I soon got a call from Neil; Marcus Weinstein wants you to call him in Florida. Richmond is cold in February. So I called, and Marcus said, “I hear you need a parking lot. Can you come by my office on Monday morning at nine?” When I walked into Marcus’ office, he said to me “Jay and I just bought your parking lot for $500,000.” But he wanted $350,000, just a few days ago. “Well, we did not want to argue with him. And you will need money to build. I have taken care of that too.” I called Al Rosenbaum with the good news. Our second staff member was Dianna Gabay - a very talented graphics designer who transferred from New York to live here. Al and Dianna, along with volunteers from all walks of life and with all sorts of a talents, including art students from VCU under the direction of Janet Gilmore Bryant, started formulating our vision. Our latest exhibit, the Nuremberg Courtroom, has stopped time. The reality of this would not have been possible were it not for the talents of Al, Dianna, and the craftsmanship of Marc Cohen and his staff. We have advanced in many more areas. We have one of the best reference libraries, thanks to the generosity of Carole Weinstein. Our distance learning center is well on its way, thanks to some local foundations. The University of Richmond and the Museum co-sponsor a Teacher Education Institute on Holocaust Education giving the participating teachers 3 post-graduate points, and enhancing their ability to teach about that horrific time in our history. We have had special one day classes for police officers where over 700 have taken advantage of this in-service training. American Inns of Court have held a seminar in the Nuremberg Courtroom. Schools from as far as 4 hours away have come to take advantage of our docent lead tours. We have just purchased an Idea data system, that is used by every museum in Israel and one other here in the U.S., that will put a searchable data base on our Web pages which are being updated by our own Leigh Weedon, my right hand. Tim Hensley, our librarian, with help from volunteers, is digiitizing many documents donated by Charles Sydnor (cont’d on pg. 15)