Holocaust Museum opens new exhibit on discrimination and anti-Semitism

The St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center will open a new exhibition, “Standing for Justice 1930-1950: Documentation from the St. Louis Jewish Community Archives” from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 16. Batya Abramson-Goldstein, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, will offer brief remarks at 1:30.

The exhibition will be held in the Holocaust Museum in the Jewish Federation Kopolow building, 12 Millstone Campus Drive.  The project is co-sponsored by the Holocaust Museum, Brodsky Jewish Community Library, JCRC, Regional Arts Council, Ken and Nancy Kranzberg, Lawrence and Hannah Langsam and Marvin and Harlene Wool.

The exhibition, including documents and artifacts, illustrates the St. Louis Jewish community’s response to discrimination in general and anti-Semitism in particular. Selected documentation drawn from the 1930s through the 1940s reveals the varied actions and reactions to wartime concerns, post-war discrimination, religious and political extremism and the Communist “Red Scare.”

“This powerful exhibition examines how the St. Louis community addressed some of these issues during the 1930s and 1940s.  This show should educate and provoke a great deal of discussion and self-reflection within our community,” said Daniel Reich, HMLC curator and director of education. 

Barb Raznick, Brodsky Library Director, said, “Once our archivist, Diane Everman, started processing the rich JCRC historical collection found in our St. Louis Jewish Community Archives, provocative and amazing documents surfaced that we wanted to share with the community.”

Admission is free. For more information, visit the museum’s website, www.hmlc.org or call 314 432-0020.