Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center Offers Half Price Admission in May to Skokie and Morton Grove Residents in Honor of 5th Anniversary

SKOKIE, IL – The Illinois
Holocaust Museum & Education Center will celebrate its 5th
Anniversary on April 19, 2014. In honor of this milestone, half price admission
will be offered to Skokie and Morton Grove residents for the entire month of May
as a thank you to the villages for their integral support.

This special offer
allows Skokie and Morton Grove residents to explore a local treasure that is likely the last major Holocaust memorial to be built in
collaboration with survivors, and the largest
center in the Midwest dedicated to preserving the memories of those lost in the
Holocaust and to teaching current generations about the dangers of overt
prejudice and hate.
To receive the discount, visitors must present their Illinois’ State Driver’s
License or proof of residency.

Designed by renowned
Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman, the 65,000 square-foot Illinois Holocaust
Museum is a culmination of 30 years of hard work by the local Holocaust
survivor community who—after neo-Nazis threatened to march in Skokie in the
late 1970s— formed the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois and purchased
a small Skokie storefront that focused on combating hate with education.

Since opening day,
the Museum has hosted programs that feature notable dignitaries, humanitarians,
scholars and Holocaust and genocide survivors.  Through its programs and exhibitions that aim
to foster the promotion of human rights and elimination of genocide, the Museum
has reached children and adults representing diverse ages, races, religions and
backgrounds from across the Midwest.

The Museum’s Karkomi
Permanent Exhibition tells the story of the Holocaust through the
testimony, artifacts and photographs of Midwestern survivors, many from the
Chicago area. The Museum also features the Make a Difference! The Harvey L. Miller
Family Youth Exhibition, where children ages 8 to 12 can discover ways
to respect differences, address bullying, and take a stand on issues that
matter to them. The Museum’s “Legacy of Absence” gallery is home to a permanent
collection of visual artwork by distinguished contemporary artists from around
the world that reflect on historical violence, revealing the continued impact
of genocide and atrocities, including Cambodia, Rwanda, Argentina, and the
Soviet Gulag. Its Brill Family Resource Center serves as the Midwest repository
for more than 2,000 Holocaust survivor testimonies as recorded by the USC Shoah
Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education.

In addition to its permanent exhibitions, the
Museum also hosts special exhibitions that explore broad themes related to its
mission. Ruth Gruber: Photojournalist,
open through June 1, 2014, celebrates the remarkable life, vision, and
heroic tenacity of a 20th century pioneer and trailblazing
photojournalist. Now 102 years old, Gruber’s work spans more than five decades,
from her groundbreaking work in the Soviet Arctic in the 1930s and her iconic
images of Jewish refugees on the ship Exodus 1947, to her later work in
the 1980s documenting Ethiopian Jews in the midst of a civil war. 

The Illinois Holocaust Museum &
Education Center is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Holocaust by
honoring the memories of those who were lost and by teaching universal lessons
that combat hatred, prejudice and indifference. The Museum fulfills its mission
through the exhibition, preservation and interpretation of its collections and
through education programs and initiatives that foster the promotion of human
rights and the elimination of genocide. The Museum is open Monday through Friday from
10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.; Thursday evenings until 8:00 p.m.; and Saturdays
and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Learn more at www.illinoisholocaustmuseum.org.