United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

There may be no subject more relevant to the issue of Jewish continuity than the Holocaust, and Sidney Kimmel responded to the call for the construction of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum immediately upon being asked to do so. The Foundation’s $5 million gift was among the earliest of the lead gifts to the Memorial, and it was recognized by the naming of the Special Exhibition Gallery. That Gallery is the locus for the most poignant topics addressed at the Memorial, with exhibits designed to encourage visitors to think and act with a sense of moral responsibility to others and to society. It has also become the launch-pad for travelling exhibitions which extend the educational reach of the Memorial.

The Foundation’s leadership gift to the Memorial, as well as to the Shoah Foundation – Steven Spielberg’s ambitious effort to record the stories of Holocaust survivors and ensure that history is never forgotten – are emblematic examples of the Foundation’s principle: Connecting Promise to Progress. These seed gifts were made to help secure the long term success of the organizations and the dissemination of their missions.

In 2015, the pervasiveness of intolerance, hate and a resurgence of anti-Semitism make the Foundation’s gifts poignant and all the more relevant.