2011-2012 Season: The Cultures that Disappeared

Genocide destroys more than human life; it demolishes the culture of the targeted group. People and the artifacts they created disappear in order to cleanse a country, a region or a continent. The Holocaust not only systematically annihilated 6 million Jews; it also obliterated the rich cultural heritage of European Jewry, especially the unique Yiddish culture of Eastern Europe. In 2011-2012, the VHM will remember and commemorate the vibrant culture of Europe’s Jews.

An Evening with Stuart Eizenstat
Tuesday, May 22, 2012, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Weinstein Jewish Community Center
5403 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23226

The World Affairs Council of Greater Richmond, First Freedom Center, Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, and Virginia Holocaust Museum are sponsoring an evening with Stuart E. Eizenstat, former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Ambassador to the European Union, and Special Representative of the President and the Secretary of State on Holocaust-Era Issues.

Eizenstat will speak about his just-published book, The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and its Relationship with the United States. The book is co-authored with Sir Martin Gilbert, one of the world’s foremost historians and an expert on Jewish history and the life of Winston Churchill. In this book, the authors survey the major geo-political, economic, and security challenges facing the world, in general, and the United States, in particular. The forces include the shift in power toward Asia and Latin America, globalization and the new information age, the battle for direction in the Muslim world, non-traditional security threats, and demographic change. They argue that these forces impact Jews in a unique way, giving rise to a new anti-Semitism, which seeks to de-legitimize the Jewish state and to weaken the strategic alliance between Israel and the United States.

At the May 22nd event, Eizenstat will also discuss his own experiences and convictions as they developed during his career in government, which also included service as White House Chief of Staff for Domestic Affairs during the Carter Administration, Under Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, and Under Secretary of Commerce for International Affairs. His lengthy, detailed, and productive negotiations with European governments, bankers, insurers, and many others on behalf of securing the restitution of communal and individual property to Holocaust survivors, their heirs, and to Jewish communities, have been widely reported and were the subject of his 2003 book Imperfect Justice.

This event is free and open to the public with free parking available at the venue.
To register, please call the World Affairs Council of Greater Richmond at 804-934-9000, or visit The World Affairs Council of Greater Richmond. 

April 22 – August 31

In 1994, the United States watched as Hutu extremists organized into groups of armed militia and butchered their Tutsi neighbors.  This April, as part of Genocide Prevention Month, the Virginia Holocaust Museum will be hosting a temporary exhibit entitled Lessons from Rwanda.  Designed by Aegis Trust, in partnership with the United Nations Department of Public Information, the exhibit is designed to draw attention to the complex issues surrounding the crime of genocide.    

Das Gesicht Des Gettos (The Face of the Ghetto)

July 1 - August 31

The Virginia Holocaust Museum will host a remarkable photograph exhibit in July and August 2012. Entitled The Face of the Ghetto, the exhibition will feature remarkable photographs taken by Jewish photographers in the Lodz Ghetto from 1940-1944. SS officers frequently photographed the miserable realities in the many ghettos established in Easter Europe. The origins photographs that comprise this exhibit are somewhat unclear. Whatever the case, each photograph represents a moment frozen in time that forms a small part of the grand mosaic depicting the destruction of European Jewry. Powerful, poignant, moving, this exhibit will provide another dimension of the ordinary men, women and children who eventually perished during the Shoah. This exhibit will open on 1 July and remain up until the end of August 2012. The exhibit is free to the public. 

The Ongoing Armenian Genocide:
Death, Denial & Desecration

November 6 - July 30

The Ongoing Armenian Genocide: Death, Denial & Desecration is a traveling exhibit developed and prepared by the Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA). Based on materials and books in ALMA's collection, the exhibit depicts the methodically planned annihilation of Armenians in Turkey during World War I.  As we begin to raise funds for a permanent modern genocide space on the second floor, The Ongoing Armenian Genocide exhibit will help us draw attention to mass atrocities outside the Holocaust. 

The exhibit is funded by a grant from Haig and Adele Der Manuelian, Vigen Der Manuelian and Lucy Der Manuelian in loving memory of their parents Manuel and Armenouhy Der Manuelian.

For more information on any of our events, please contact Matthew Simpson at 804.257.5400 ext. 246.