Yad Vashem and Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center Sign Cooperation Agreement

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance and education center in Jerusalem, and the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center (IHMEC) signed an important agreement Wednesday to pursue and promote a close and cooperative relationship in several key contexts, including: education, publications, museum activity and commemoration.

“I am delighted to have hosted the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s leadership here on the Mount of Remembrance, and look forward to our cooperation in the future,” said Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem. “With over five decades of experience in Holocaust commemoration, documentation research, and our cutting-edge work in education, Yad Vashem is pleased to cooperate with the Illinois Holocaust Museum in their important activities.”

The agreement was announced during a two-day working visit to Yad Vashem by a senior delegation from the Illinois Holocaust Museum, including the Museum’s Chairman of the Museum’s Board of Trustees J.B. Pritzker, the Museum’s Executive Director Richard Hirschhaut, and Museum Interior and Exhibition Co-Conceptual Developers Michael Berenbaum and Yitzhak Mais. They met with Shalev and senior Yad Vashem staff, in order to explore avenues of cooperation. The group was also given in-depth tours of the Holocaust History Museum, the Museum of Holocaust Art, the Yad Vashem Archives and the International School for Holocaust Studies.

“The strengthening of the ongoing relationship between our two institutions furthers the global significance of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center,” said Pritzker. “Our cooperative relationship will allow us to share Yad Vashem’s wealth of knowledge about the Holocaust with our Museum’s patrons.”

The agreement notes that, “emphasis will be placed upon optimal realization of Yad Vashem’s unsurpassed expertise and knowledge in Holocaust-related research, education and commemoration, together with the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center’s promising and vital new position, in its region and elsewhere, as an effective catalyst for enhanced, widespread Holocaust remembrance.”

“We are grateful for this opportunity to work closely with Yad Vashem to enhance our institution’s offerings to our patrons,” said Hirschhaut. “The cooperation with Yad Vashem will enable the Illinois Holocaust Museum to best commemorate the Jewish experience before, during and after the Holocaust.”