Phoenix Holocaust center raises $38 million, expected to open in 2027 to foster education

by Adnan Alam
  • Slug: News–Holocaust Center. 710 words.
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By Katrina Michalak
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Funds for the future Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center in Phoenix are now up to $38 million, providing more resources ahead of the expected opening in April 2027.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors allocated $2 million to the project in October 2024. Phoenix has given $2 million, and the state also authorized a $7 million appropriation in the fall.

“This collaboration with the Arizona Jewish Historical Society will help preserve and embrace the rich heritage of our local Jewish communities, educate the public on the historical significance of the Holocaust, and teach students to take responsibility for building a better and more just world,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas Galvin in an October news release. The $2 million from Maricopa County came from Galvin’s portion of the county’s Community Solutions Funding.

Steve Hilton, whose father is a Holocaust survivor and whose family the center is named after, has also donated $4 million to the project. Donors have also included individuals, foundations and a small number of corporations.

AZJHS, a Phoenix nonprofit organization, is building the center.

The original vision, conceived in 2015, was an art museum commemorating Holocaust survivors. Over the last 10 years, the concept has evolved into a center housing comprehensive learning materials specific to Arizona.

“The stories you will hear and see and witness when you go through this will be stories of survivors that have lived here and/or stories of family members of people that live here who didn’t survive,” said Frank Jacobson, the managing consultant and capital campaign director for the center.

Despite previous government pauses in funding, AZJHS aims to collect $45 million by the center’s opening.

Jacobson said $10 million will go toward an endowment, or a specific investment fund to be used for center operations. The remaining $35 million will go to construction, exhibitions, security and more.

The inside of the center will include two floors of galleries and exhibits. The exhibits will use virtual technology and answer questions about the Holocaust.

Visitors will use headgear to walk through Holocaust concentration camps and other settings. “Hologram-like” technology will use interviews from survivors to simulate conversations.

Jacobson said the goal of the center is to arm students and visitors with knowledge so they can stand up to prejudiced behavior and prevent future acts of atrocity.

“Every one of us can do something (so) that when we see the possibility of people being degraded, or dehumanized, or name called … that people will not just stand idly by,” Jacobson said.

Center development comes during a time of increasing concern over students’ education related to the Holocaust. According to a Pew Research Center 2019 survey, almost three in 10 Americans were unsure of how many Jewish people died in the Holocaust – 6 million perished. Teens answered fewer Holocaust-related questions correctly than adults did.

Anthony Fusco Jr., associate director of education at AZJHS, said the presence of social media has impacted Holocaust education.

“Immersive technologies can help, but it’s so important … to make sure that what people are reading on social media is a fact and is a basis of reality,” Fusco said.

Current Arizona law requires public schools to teach the Holocaust at least twice between seventh and 12th grade. The state Department of Education also has a webpage dedicated to lessons for teachers.

A condition of the government appropriation is that Arizona students can visit the center for free, Jacobson said.

Jacobson said architects are now working on detailed drawings of the center to be submitted to Phoenix for permits.

The society is planning to break ground on July 1. The center will be built on land at the Cutler-Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center. The building was the first synagogue in Phoenix.

As of 2023, there were over 38,000 Holocaust survivors in the United States, according to a demographic study by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference). Fusco said it’s important to learn from Arizona survivors.

“The lessons of the Holocaust are still there for us to understand,” Fusco said. “And to realize that sometimes conditioning and complicity … having racist or prejudicial or stereotypical or implicit bias views can lead to such behavior that we saw back in the darkest days of human history.”

For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.

The Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center in Phoenix will be 30,000 square feet and include multiple galleries and exhibits. (Rendering courtesy of Arizona Jewish Historical Society)
The Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center is expected to open in Phoenix in 2027. (Rendering courtesy of Arizona Jewish Historical Society)
Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center in Phoenix will feature two floors of galleries and will encourage visitors to learn about the history of the Holocaust to prevent future genocide. (Rendering courtesy of Arizona Jewish Historical Society)
Visitors to the Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center in Phoenix will interact with technology in exhibits to learn about Holocaust stories. (Rendering courtesy of Arizona Jewish Historical Society)