Traveling Israel exhibit opens in Florida

By Jerry Klinger

DANIA BEACH, Florida – On one side of the seating area on Sunday, Dec. 8, was a documented German cattle car used to transport Jews from Warsaw to their death in Treblinka.  On the opposite side was a full-sized WWII era American Sherman tank, the kind of war machine needed and used to end the Holocaust.

It was a dramatic setting for a crowd of hundreds to view the opening of Israel Then and Now, a traveling exhibit combining historical images, milestone moments, interactive media, and film. The 5,000+ foot exhibition at the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center was so rich with materials, displays, and artifacts it could easily have been developed into a 50,000-foot exhibition.

Founded in 1980, the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center records, preserves, and presents the eyewitness accounts of Survivors, Liberators, and Rescuers from the community.  The objective is to remember and to teach how the transmission of hate, bigotry, and ignorance can lead to tragedy.

Israel Then and Now looks back to the founding of Political Zionism and Theodore Herzl. It moves quickly to concentrate on the 70 years since the birth of the modern Israeli state in 1948. The emphasis is on what Israel has given to the world, in spite of murderous challenges to the Jewish people in general and to Israel in particular.

Israel Then and Now was officially opened at a reception for hundreds with opening remarks and an invocation by long term board member, Father Pat H. O’Neill. The Star-Spangled Banner and the Hatikvah were sung followed by the keynote address delivered by Ambassador Ido Aharoni, who has served as Israel’s American representative in various capacities for over 25 years.

He focused on the need for accurate information and the destructive effects of false narratives such as the one that tries to sell people on the idea that Israel was founded by Europeans as a colonial occupying force.

Aharoni illustrated the falsity of the colonist narrative with a personal story.  At the insistence of his children, he took a DNA test to determine his historical, ethnic origins.  Aharoni pointed out that he, like many in the diverse society of Israel, has 100 percent Middle Eastern roots.  He, his family, his neighbors, are not occupiers, they are living on the lands that have been Jewish ancestral homes for millennia.

The opening day remarks concluded with a special recognition by the museum’s president, Rositta Kenigsberg, for American artist, photographer, and creative philanthropist Marc Bennett. Just this week, Bennett had installed his massive, unitary art creation illustrating the History of the Star of David.

The Star of David was first documented in the second and third centuries in Israel.  His artwork invoked Star of David symbology to contemporary times when the Zionist Movement and Theodor Herzl actively engaged it. On one hand, Bennett’s art illustrates the Star was used to designate evil by the Nazis. Today, it is the symbol of reborn life, enduring life, and is the central symbol of the flag of Israel.

The donated work, 18 individual panels blended into one quilt design of color and light, is on permanent display at the Museum. Ten percent of the revenues from all of Bennett’s Star of David productions are dedicated to benefit the Soroka Medical Center in the Negev.  The Soroka Medical Center responds to human needs, not political considerations. Jew, non-Jew, Arab or Bedouin are cared for equally at its location.

The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center is actively seeking artifacts.  A few weeks ago, a very rare print of the Exodus was loaned for permanent display.  It is one of only seven in the world to be originally autographed by Sam Schulman (z”l), the last crew member of the Exodus, the famous American pop singer and cultural popularizer of the famous song, Exodus, Pat Boone, and famous maritime artist Paul McGehee.

Israel Then and Now will be on exhibition at the Museum through February, with the possibility that its stay will be extended.  It is believed to be one of the few major exhibitions in the United States at this time with a positive presentation of Israel and its accomplishments.

The Center moved in 2016 to its new location in Dania Beach. Slowly the huge site is being converted into a unique interactive Holocaust Museum.  Once the conversion capital of $7 -$9 million is obtained, the Museum will become one of the most distinctive  venues and Holocaust educational centers in the country.

As the capital base is developing, the museum actively brings in special exhibitions like Israel Then and Now for different durations. The traveling exhibition is produced through the generosity of Cleveland’s Maltz Family and the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. The extremely high quality of Israel Then and Now was created by the exhibition designer Patrick Gallagher.

The exhibition is a celebration of accomplishments that is beyond words to savor.  Israel is only 71 years old. The exhibition asks viewers to imagine how much more good such a young country as Israel will bring in the future.

The Holocaust Documentation & Education Center is located at 303 N. Federal Highway in Dania Beach.

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Jerry Klinger is president of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.