museum of tolerance
last week, when i was in los angeles, my boyfriend suggested that we go to the museum of tolerance. it is quite famous and popular. it was designed to "examine race and prejudice in the united states." it is sponsored by the simon wiesenthal center. simon wiesenthal is the famous nazi hunter who survived the holocaust.
we went to the museum on a friday during the summer. parking is conveniently located under the museum and is free with admission to the museum. the museum exhibits are primarily in the bottom of the building and on the 3rd floor.
we started out entering in the tolerancenter. this was a very interactive exhibit with many videos, surveys and interactive screens. the focus seemed to be on post-holocaust racist genocides' many of which occurred in africa and the middle east. it seemed to emphasize that the world had not learned from world war ll and that the issue still needs worldwide focus.
at this point, jason wanted to see the speaker at 2 pm. it was a former white supremacist. the speech was called hate to hope and is described as a "remarkable true story of the reconciliation of a perpetrator, tim zaal, and victim of a hate crime." matthew, the victim, was not available on friday. it was touching and he was very open to questions. we both wished that tim had been more articulate and a little more descriptive of his earlier experiences. he kept sort of assuming that we knew what that lifestyle was like.
we then hurried down to the holocaust museum, which seems to be the most talked about section of the museum and we were told that it would be closing soon (it was 3 pm). it is an over hour very guided audio and visual tour through the events leading up to and through world war II and the holocaust. at the beginning of the exhibit, you get a card with a child from the holocaust. at the end, you find out what happened to that child. it is an interesting mix of retrospective and sort of "real" time audio. we both wished that this moved slightly faster in parts.
once we finished this, we went upstairs to try to see the special exhibit, courage: the vision to end segregation. the guts to fight for it. well, it turns out this exhibit closed at 4 pm even though the museum itself was open until 5 pm. so, instead we tried to go to the permanent exhibit, finding our families, finding ourselves. parts of this exhibit as well were already turned off at 4:15. this exhibit was about ellis island and family differences. jason and i had both been to the real ellis island and it was interesting to see an exhibit about the place we had been to.
so, at 4:30, basically the entire museum was shut down even though the posted close time was 5 pm.
overall we really enjoyed the museum. we thought it was making good use of all of its technology and multimedia exhibits. we were quite disappointed about how all the exhibits were shut down well before the posted closing time of 5 pm. if we had at least known that certain exhibits were closing earlier, we would have better planned our time, perhaps leaving the speaker's talk sooner.
times visited: 1
time spent in museum: a little under 4 hours
overall: B+
we went to the museum on a friday during the summer. parking is conveniently located under the museum and is free with admission to the museum. the museum exhibits are primarily in the bottom of the building and on the 3rd floor.
we started out entering in the tolerancenter. this was a very interactive exhibit with many videos, surveys and interactive screens. the focus seemed to be on post-holocaust racist genocides' many of which occurred in africa and the middle east. it seemed to emphasize that the world had not learned from world war ll and that the issue still needs worldwide focus.
at this point, jason wanted to see the speaker at 2 pm. it was a former white supremacist. the speech was called hate to hope and is described as a "remarkable true story of the reconciliation of a perpetrator, tim zaal, and victim of a hate crime." matthew, the victim, was not available on friday. it was touching and he was very open to questions. we both wished that tim had been more articulate and a little more descriptive of his earlier experiences. he kept sort of assuming that we knew what that lifestyle was like.
we then hurried down to the holocaust museum, which seems to be the most talked about section of the museum and we were told that it would be closing soon (it was 3 pm). it is an over hour very guided audio and visual tour through the events leading up to and through world war II and the holocaust. at the beginning of the exhibit, you get a card with a child from the holocaust. at the end, you find out what happened to that child. it is an interesting mix of retrospective and sort of "real" time audio. we both wished that this moved slightly faster in parts.
once we finished this, we went upstairs to try to see the special exhibit, courage: the vision to end segregation. the guts to fight for it. well, it turns out this exhibit closed at 4 pm even though the museum itself was open until 5 pm. so, instead we tried to go to the permanent exhibit, finding our families, finding ourselves. parts of this exhibit as well were already turned off at 4:15. this exhibit was about ellis island and family differences. jason and i had both been to the real ellis island and it was interesting to see an exhibit about the place we had been to.
so, at 4:30, basically the entire museum was shut down even though the posted close time was 5 pm.
overall we really enjoyed the museum. we thought it was making good use of all of its technology and multimedia exhibits. we were quite disappointed about how all the exhibits were shut down well before the posted closing time of 5 pm. if we had at least known that certain exhibits were closing earlier, we would have better planned our time, perhaps leaving the speaker's talk sooner.
times visited: 1
time spent in museum: a little under 4 hours
overall: B+
You should turn this site into a book when you're 30.
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