Seven Holocaust museums in North America issued a joint statement on the alarming rise of antisemitic attacks since Oct. 7.
“Holocaust museums are no strangers to acts of antisemitism. We teach how those acts—celebrated and reinforced at all levels of Nazi society—led to the murder of approximately 6 million Jews,” the group wrote on Monday. “The senseless scapegoating of Jews did not begin or end with the Holocaust.”
Bigotry against the Jewish people has occurred “for thousands of years, and while the pretext may change, the antisemitic motivation is the same,” the statement read.
The facilities include the Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City; the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla.; the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle; Holocaust Museum LA in California; Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Chicagoland; the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center in Cincinnati; and the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills, Mich.
Pointing to the center in Seattle, where a vandal scrawled “Genocide in Gaza” onto a photo of a child Holocaust survivor, the group said: “We strongly condemn this crime—and we also recognize it as an opportunity to educate.”
The facilities added that “holding Jews—much less a Holocaust museum—responsible for the wartime actions of a foreign government is unacceptable and straightforwardly antisemitic.”
Noting the tripling of hate crimes against American Jews since the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, the group called “many of those crimes motivated by inaccurate allegations of genocide against Israel. Our mission to guard the memory of Holocaust survivors and victims requires clarity on what does and does not constitute genocide, especially where misconceptions lead to hateful acts of antisemitism.”
The museums advocated for education as “the only way to break this cycle” and urged “working together toward a more peaceful and accepting world.”
