Last updated: 12/18/2017
851 N. Maitland Avenue
Maitland, FL 32751
Monday - Thursday
9 AM - 4 PM
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Pamela Kancher
phone: 407-628-0666 x316
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Mitchell Bloomer
phone: 407-628-0555 x283
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The Holocaust Center, one of the oldest in the nation, offers an historical museum, a multi-media library and a gallery featuring traveling art exhibitions from around the world.
The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida is a not-for-profit, interfaith, multicultural organization. Its mission is to provide education and cultural experiences - to examine the past in order to learn from it, and to help people become aware of and alert to present dangers to our freedoms, our human rights, and our lives by learning the lessons of the Holocaust. The vision of a just community in a diverse, multi-cultural setting engaged in combating the dark forces of prejudice and anti-Semitism is the focus of our work, which we undertake for the benefit of present and future generations. Thus, memory is transformed into study and study into memory" (Elie Wiesel) in hopes that oppression and genocide will be combatted and shall never happen again to any minority group."
In 1980, the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando created a committee to explore a way to create a memorial to those who had died in the Holocaust. In spite of expert advice that suggested that Orlando was too small for this project, Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando and Valencia Community College supported the
development of an active educational Center.
They began with a broadly-supported community-wide conference on the Holocaust in 1981, cosponsored by the newly-formed Holocaust Center (then known as the Holocaust Project of Valencia Community College), Florida Humanities Council, Valencia Community College, and the Jewish Federation. It brought in nationally known scholars, and it was so successful that it was followed in 1982 by a local Conference on Terrorism. In 1982 the Holocaust Education and Resource Center, housed at the Jewish Community Center, became an autonomous organization and elected its first board of directors.
From the beginning, the focus was on the social, historical, moral, ethical and economic implications of the Holocaust for today. Its earliest projects centered on teacher education, programs for school-aged youth, community awareness, preservation of survivor testimony, and a community commemorative event for Yom HaShoah, a day of remembrance of the six million Jews who died under Nazi rule. The Center’s staff and supporters were also actively involved in the campaign to include Holocaust Education in the mandated state curriculum. That statute was finally adopted in 1994.
In 1986, a Holocaust Center facility was constructed, a professional museum exhibit was installed, and a library with documentary and archival collections was developed. The Center received national recognition for its unique facility – the only one of its kind in the Southeast until 1996 – as well as for its dedication to world-class, innovative programming. The building was significantly enlarged in 1994 to accommodate larger class visits, and a new storage area was added in 2005.
Today, the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center offers a variety of programs to sensitize the public to issues of tolerance, diversity and respect for cultural differences. Its leadership and supporters firmly believe that preserving the past helps us protect the future, and that a moral and just community grows from understanding the watershed events of human history.
Artifacts consist of physical objects from Holocaust ghettos and camps, personal letters and cards, photographs, wartime publications, maps, journals and insignia.
Letters, journals and diaries, photographs
Many of our visitors are students from area public, private and home schools who are on field trips. While here, our full-time resource teacher explains the history of the Holocaust and the lessons to be learned about compassion, courage, and good citizenship.
We also serve as one of Florida’s centers for teacher education on the Holocaust. We host a 5-day, 40 hour training on the most effective, most respectful ways to teach this difficult subject. Monthly teacher forums, traveling teaching trunks of classroom materials, a free lending library and information and consultations by phone assist teachers in fulfilling the state mandate on Holocaust education.
Broader education on the lessons of genocide and prejudice has been promoted through an annual series of visual arts, music, film and speakers, all of which put a human face and individual voice to each of the six million who were killed.
Auditoriums
Lecture Halls
Access: General Public
Appointment required: No
Bi-annual newsletter, annual report, event postcards. Most communication is electronic.
Wheelchair Accessible
Parking
Restrooms
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