Guest speaker Susan Abrams was appointed CEO of the Illinois Museum & Education Center in April 2014. With over 20 years of experience in non-profit work, museum, business building and financial management, she was a primed for the challenges. Under her leadership, the museum will open a new three-gallery permanent exhibition, Take a Stand Center, in October of this year. In addition, the museum launched it's Commit to the Future Capital Campaign in 2015 to raise $30 million and has already surpassed the $25 million mark. The Museum and Education Center, located in Skokie, has two statements below its name: 'Take history to heart' and 'Take a stand for humanity'. You'll find at the museum there is the Legacy of Absence Gallery, a gallery of contemporary art that invokes responses to genocide and other atrocities like Cambocia, Rwanda, Argentina and the Soviet Gulag. The Karkomi Holocaust Exhibition is a permanent exhibit where those familiar and learning for the first time can experience pre-war European life, ghettos, concentration camps, liberation and resettlement. More that 500 artifacts, documents and photographs help the visitor connect with the horrors faced by so many. It also has a special focus on the postwar life in Skokie which had the largest per capita population of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel that eventually sparked the creation of this museum. Because of the solemnity of these events, there are several places for reflection within the grounds. The Room of Remembrance is a domed room, warm and hushed. This a space that pays homage to the six million Jews and the millions of others murdered during the Holocaust. The Pritzker Hall of Reflection provides a forum for peaceful discussion. It's a brighter, more open space to encourage that kind of dialogue. Finally, the Ferro Fountain of the Righteous is outside of the museum that pays tribute to those Gentile families who risked their own lives to rescue Jews during the war. Thanks to Cynthia Plouché for her notes! |
