Some observations about MoT
This is one of the places I bring out of town visitors, and then I take them to the ocean the next day... First let me dispel some distortions. Security is very tight at this museum; why? Maybe because some very dangerous people would target this museum, such as Buford Furrow. He first 'cased' this museum, decided security was too 'good' and instead unleashed his bullets on a Jewish center filled with children in the Valley, and a man who was murdered because in Buford's world view this postman's racial identity made him expendable. And this museum is called the Museum of Tolerance, and not Holocaust_____ because this museum is dedicated to Simon Wiesenthal, who was motivated by "justice not vengeance" (he achieved renown as pursuer of fugitive Nazis after WWII). He was known for his ecumenical approach to what is commonly referred to as the Holocaust. So for Wiesenthal the proper label for a museum that honors him is Museum of Tolerance. The museum's primary exhibit is definitely on the Holocaust but the bigger lesson is the historical world context in which this happened. So other exhibits that target prejudice, systemic oppression, intolerance, hate speech shed light not only how the Holocaust occurred , but how genocides continues. Although the word 'holocaust' is generally used to describe the specific slaughter of European Jews and those others who were targeted by the Nazis, current usage of the term also encompasses the wholesale genocide of different world populations, such as (but not limited to) the Armenian genocide by the Turkish, the Rwandan genocide, the Aboriginal genocides of native peoples in US or Australia, the Cambodian genocide conducted by the Khmer, and sickeningly on and on through the present. The opportunity to hear the personal stories of survivors is invaluable, enlightening and humbling. I've also listened to the personal story of another kind of survivor, a young man attacked by a homophobic skinhead gang, and the eventual reconciliation(!) of that young man with one of the gang members, who chooses to share his story of redemption at the museum. This museum ain't perfect, but it challenges and illuminates all the deep recesses of our hearts and minds.