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Courtesy Xochitl Mora,

Laredo Public Library to host Wall of Tolerance Center & Museum, displays and lessons to be main focus of exhibit

 Laredo, TX—April 20, 2010—After the horrors of the Holocaust, the world vowed to never let such a thing happen again.  Unfortunately, the world continues to commit acts of violence and intolerance throughout the world.  The Laredo Public Library hopes that their new permanent exhibit, the Wall of Tolerance Center & Museum, will be one step to teaching the world, or at least, Laredo, about the consequences of intolerance and indifference.

 The exhibit, set to officially launch this Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 3:00 p.m. at the Laredo Public Library, located at 1120 E. Calton Road, will be a place where citizens and visitors of Laredo can come to meditate and observe the past so that they may change the future, a center where they can create and thrive within an atmosphere and tolerance.

 “Laredo has always been a community that embraces all people,” said City of Laredo Mayor Raul G. Salinas.  “With the Wall of Tolerance Center & Museum, we can continue to show Laredo youth the mistakes of the path, so that they can become leaders to help stop such atrocities from ever occurring again,” he concluded.

 The project was originally born in 2007 in the mind and heart of United High School teacher Marco Franko, who attended the Freedom Writers Institute at Los Angeles.  Part of his training included a visit to the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum where, he received a free copy of “Echoes and Reflections,” a visual history of the Holocaust developed by the Anti-Defamation League, the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute and Yad Vashem. This is a very comprehensive – and powerful – multi-media curriculum on the Holocaust composed of 10 modular lessons, accompanied by a CD.

 The next year, another trip to the Freedom Writers Institute, solidified the idea of creating a Holocaust Wall in Laredo. A visit with Rabbi Elliot Rosenbaum and Les Norton, both of Laredo’s Congregation Agudas Achim, and a meeting with Pam Burrell, a reference librarian responsible for adult programs at the Laredo Public Library, showed Franco there was a desire in Laredo for such a display to become a reality.

 “The response by Laredo to Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein, and Rwandan genocide child soldier Ishmael Beah, who have come to our community to discuss their experiences was overwhelming, and very moving,” said Pam Burrell. “People of all ages want to learn more about what these ordinary people did to survive in such horribly extraordinary circumstances, and that is why this project is so important to have in Laredo.  So that we can continue to study and learn the lessons of the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, or the slaughter in Bosnia-Herzegovina, we have created the Wall of Tolerance Center & Museum,” she concluded.

 The Wall of Tolerance Center & Museum will be more than just a static display of pictures and memorabilia.  It will be a living exhibit, one that changes and features different elements; however, one what will make the display truly educational will be the lessons that will be the nine-month curriculum that will be taught that accompanies the exhibit.

 “The Center will provide classes and discussion to foster a conscience of awareness and social responsibility toward eliminating acts of violence, prejudice and discrimination against men, women and children in our community, across our nation and throughout our world,” said Carmen Escamilla, Laredo Public Library Advisory Board member and head librarian at Alexander High School, who will be teaching a lesson associated with the curriculum.

 Currently, several of the lessons are being taught by United I.S.D. teachers; however, the curriculum is open to teachers of all districts and educational institutions who wish to participate.  An introductory lesson for educators participating, or wishing to participate, will be held on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.; additionally, the Library will try to bring in authors/guest lecturers to be part of the lessons. See the complete curriculum schedule. Anyone wishing to participate should contact Pam Burrell, who will serve as curator for the Center & Museum, at the Library at 795-2400, x2268 or via e-mail at pam@laredolibrary.org.

 In fact, the Wall of Tolerance Center & Museum is truly a collaboration of the community, with many entities involved to help make the exhibit a reality.  While the display will be permanently housed at the Laredo Public Library, the center will have many elements that will be donated or supplied by other organizations. A permanent mural will be created by art students at Texas A&M International University; many of the permanent display elements will be donated by Congregation Agudas Achim, with Rabbi Rosenbaum serving as a consultant on some of the educational and historical lessons. Because of the costs associated with the continued display and the changing exhibits, Norton will be leading fundraising efforts for the museum; individuals and private business and corporations who wish to donate to this cause can contact him at (956) 726-3636 or via e-mail at les1248@swbell.net  Additionally, the City of Laredo City Council will provide funding for the initial capital improvements of the museum.

 Sunday’s opening ceremony is open to the public and will feature a mix of celebration and somber remembrance. A priest from the Catholic Diocese of Laredo will bless and pray for the success of the Center and its message to take hold and help heal the wounds of intolerance that may still linger in the community and the world.  Musical and dance interludes will also help add color to the ceremony, which will feature remarks from City of Laredo Mayor Raul G. Salinas and Pastor Sandra Howell of the Church of the Crossroads. 

 However, the highlight of the ceremony is the incorporation of the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony. Holocaust Remembrance Day is when Jewish congregations around the world remember the six million Jews who were slaughtered during the Holocaust.  Alex Katzman, grandson of Laredoan and Holocaust survivor Mrs. Toibe Goldberg will express his grandmother’s appreciation for the project. Goldberg is donating the original yellow Stars of David she and her husband wore while living in Lithuania. 

 Original Stars of David are very rare Holocaust memorabilia; Goldberg, who was so moved when she heard of the Wall of Tolerance Center & Museum, wanted to share a bit of her history and experience with her fellow Laredoans.  Keynote speaker for the ceremony will be Dr. George Fodor, a Holocaust survivor who now lives in San Antonio.  After that follows the Holocaust Remembrance Day candle ceremony, where six candles are lit to remembers the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. A seventh candle is then lit to remember the Righteous Gentiles who helped to save Jewish men, women and children during the Holocaust.   

The ceremony will conclude with the Prayer for the Dead, led by Rabbi Rosenbaum.  “The Wall of Tolerance is a permanent reflection of the good will and the spirit of brotherhood embodied by the citizens of Laredo,” said Rabbi Rosenbaum.  “This exhibit, and the educational program that accompanies it, assures that the tragic lessons of history will be studied and G-d willing, not repeated by future generations,” said Rosenbaum.

 The first lesson for the Wall of Tolerance Center & Museum kicks off on Saturday, May 8, 2010 and will take a look at “Genocide in the 20^th Century.”  According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, genocide is the use of deliberate systematic measures – killing, bodily or mental injury, unlivable conditions, prevention of births – calculated to bring about the extermination of a racial, political, or cultural group or to destroy language, religion or culture of a group.  Some examples of mass genocide that took place in the last century and will be studied include:

• Mexico’s Yaqui Indians – 1900 – 1909 (2/3 of population died from enslavement)
• Armenians in Turkey – 1915-1918 (1,500,000 deaths)
• Stalin’s forced famine – 1932-1933 (700,000 deaths)
• Rape of Nanking – 1937-1938 (300,000 deaths)
• Nazi Holocaust – 1938-1945 (6,000,000 deaths)
• Pol Pot in Cambodia – 1975-1979 (2,000,000 deaths)
• Rwanda 1994 – (800,000 deaths)
• Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992-1995 (200,000 deaths)

 Future lessons set for 2011 include “The Hispanic Experience in the 20^th Century,” a look at the efforts by Hispanics, particularly Mexican-Americans to gain civil rights for themselves, especially for farm-workers, and to fight for equality in education and the political arena.  This topic is especially important as the continued immigration debate uses many of the same arguments from this period.  In 2012, the Center will focus on “The African-American Experience in the 20^th Century,” also looking at the powerful, and often bloody, strides made by African Americans. 

 For more information on the Laredo Public Library and the programs it offers to the community, please call 795-2400 or visit the website at www.laredolibrary.org.