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2017 SESSION

17101959D
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 853
Offered January 31, 2017
Commending the Virginia Holocaust Museum.
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Patrons-- Carr, Anderson, Filler-Corn, Levine, Lopez, Loupassi, Massie, McQuinn, Murphy, O'Bannon, Peace, Robinson and Simon; Senators: Chase, Dance, Deeds, Dunnavant, Ebbin, McClellan and Sturtevant
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WHEREAS, for 20 years, the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond has educated thousands of visitors about the tragedy of the Holocaust and worked to preserve the memory of those who lost their lives during this horrific period of history; and

WHEREAS, the Virginia Holocaust Museum was founded in 1997 by Mark Fetter, Jay Ipson, and Al Rosenbaum; the museum was a popular site for field trips and quickly outgrew its original location in the education building of a local synagogue; and

WHEREAS, the Virginia Holocaust Museum moved to the former American Tobacco Company Warehouse in the Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond, which had been restored and reconfigured; the museum opened at its new location on Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Day of Remembrance, in 2003; and

WHEREAS, the Virginia Holocaust Museum contains several exhibits; one of which is the Nuremburg Courtroom, a reproduction of Room 600 of the Palace of Justice, where Nazi war criminals were tried before international military tribunals in 1945 and 1946; and

WHEREAS, the Virginia Holocaust Museum also allows visitors to enter an authentic German “goods wagon,” a freight car similar to those used to transport people to concentration camps, to better understand the horrors of the Holocaust; and

WHEREAS, each year, the Virginia Holocaust Museum welcomes nearly 50,000 visitors to experience these and other exhibits and remains an important location for school field trips, with students from more than 100 middle and high schools regularly visiting the museum; and

WHEREAS, the Virginia Holocaust Museum also conducts a variety of outreach programs, including a robust speaker series, and provides sets of books focusing on the history of the Holocaust to teachers throughout the Commonwealth at no cost; and

WHEREAS, in 2015, the Virginia Holocaust Museum began to update the collection with newly discovered facts and figures, as well as to update the core exhibition spaces to better serve students and members of the public; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend the Virginia Holocaust Museum on the occasion of its 20th anniversary for its educational contributions to the City of Richmond and the Commonwealth; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Marcus Weinstein, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Holocaust Museum, as an expression of the General Assembly’s admiration for the museum’s work to preserve the memory and legacies of those lost during the Holocaust.