The Holocaust Museum LA, located in Pan Pacific Park, kicked off its expansion project journey Wednesday with a groundbreaking ceremony where elected officials, community leaders, donors and Holocaust survivors came together to celebrate the milestone.
“I was proud to join the groundbreaking of the Jona Goldrich Campus which will continue to educate all the people who walk through its doors about the horrors of the Holocaust and the resiliency of our Jewish community,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsay Horvath said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
USC Shoah’s testimonies of Holocaust survivors is just one of the many additions that is part of the upcoming $50 million expansion.
Shoah’s Dimensions of Testimony exhibit will be moved from its current location in the museum to the new theater, once it is completed. The 200-seat theater is planned to be constructed specifically for Dimensions in Testimony, the experience of conversing with holographic Holocaust survivors created by the USC Shoah Foundation. The theater will also hold film screenings, conferences, public programs and even concerts.
According to Victoria Lonberg, deputy director of development at the Holocaust Museum LA, they hope the theater will “grow and continue that partnership” with USC Shoah.
Dimensions in Testimony allows for a live audience to communicate in real-time with Holocaust survivors and genocide witnesses. According to the group’s website, the foundation developed technology that allows for the public to work with an “interactive biography.”
The program and exhibit have been implemented in multiple museums across the country.
“They are real pioneers. You know, aside from the important work they do, preserving testimony, they’re really pioneers in the use of technology,” said Bruce Phillips, a professor of Jewish Studies at USC. “It’s great to see technology come to Pan Pacific Park.”
Other additions include a 2,500-square-foot space dedicated to temporary exhibits, outdoor reflective spaces, and two classrooms for large student groups and student-targeted programs, according to the Holocaust Museum LA official website.
With the expansion, the museum hopes to increase its annual audience to roughly 500,000 by 2030.
“It means so much because we really are on the frontlines of educating students and making sure that students and visitors understand the lessons of the Holocaust so it doesn’t ever happen again,” said Lonberg. “We’ve had students come from different parts of the country, and we’ve even had students come from other countries to visit to continue to do that.”