At the Museum

Susan Suarez President & CEO

Happy New Year to you and your families! We hope your holidays were safe and memorable.

Remembering one of our founders

Since our last column, the Museum family lost one of the founding members of the Museum – Godfrey Levy. Godfrey was an incredible advocate for the Museum and its mission. He led the Museum administration for many years and, along with his fellow Board Members, positioned it on the path, growing to where we are today. He will be greatly missed.

Luncheon event

Many thanks to all who supported our education programming on Giving Tuesday and through Amazon Smile for their holiday shopping. We had a very memorable luncheon event, with the premiere of the new classroom play “Remember – The Story of Abe Price.” Created in conjunction with Gulfshore Playhouse (GSP) Founding and Producing Artistic Director Kristen Coury and Managing Director Joel Markus, “Remember” was written by Jeffrey Binder and directed by Steven Calakos.

We were honored to have Abe’s sons – Herb, Sid and Harry – and their families join us at Arthrex One for the premiere. Many thanks to GSP actors, Victor Caroli, Jim Corsica, Sue Schaffel and Luke Lachle, for bringing Abe’s extraordinary story to life. We know the students who see this play will carry his memory with them.

Hitler examining looted artworks

Teacher Holocaust Education trip

The organizer of the long-delayed Teacher Holocaust Education trip to Europe has just confirmed the trip will take place this summer! The two Collier County teachers selected in March 2019 for the trip have confirmed they plan to attend. We will provide an update on this in the coming months.

2022 programming

We have a lot of great programming planned for you in 2022 — exhibitions, events, Zoom and in-person speaker programs.

The “Vedem Underground” traveling exhibit by the Vedem Foundation continues in the Estelle and Stuart Price Gallery through Feb. 28, 2022. More information is available on our website, www.HMCEC.org.

The next exhibit in the Gallery will be, “Letters from Westerbork,” which looks at examples of correspondence from those held in the Westerbork Transit Camp to family and friends. This will run from March until September.

Hank Bitterman will give a presentation on genealogy in the Museum annex on Sunday, Jan. 23 at 1 p.m. Bring your own laptop and learn how to research your family history.

On Jan. 27, 2022, we are offering complimentary Museum admission for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. You must sign up for your complimentary admission ticket on our website. A special film about Abe Price, Holocaust survivor and Museum co-founder, will be shown throughout the afternoon.

General Romeo Dallaire

We invite you to sign up for Museum Docent Ellaine Rosen’s five-part lecture series, “Nazi Looted Art – Unfinished Business.” With Ellaine’s background in art and Holocaust history, you will be given an in-depth look at this subject. The series will be held in person at the Museum from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 12, 19 and 26 as well as Feb. 2 and 9. The cost is $100 for the complete series or $20 per session.

Museum Docent Stuart Mest, M.D. is presenting a two-part series on “Eugenics, Experiments, Ethics: Nazi Germany, Japan and the U.S.” This series will also be held in person at the Museum at 5 p.m. on Feb. 23 and March 2; $40 for the presentations and an RSVP is required. Visit www.HMCEC.org to register. Dr. Mest will offer repeat sessions of Parts One and Two at 5 p.m. on March 9 and 16 at the Museum.

Our annual fundraising event, Triumph 2022, will take place on Thursday, March 3 at Arthrex One in North Naples. The location will be familiar to those who joined us for the Luncheon. Our special guest will be General Romeo Dallaire, who led the UN Special Forces during the Rwandan genocide. General Dallaire and his troops tried their best, against insurmountable odds, to stop the genocide, and when their efforts failed, to render aid to the victims. Information on tickets and sponsorship packages is available on our website at www.HMCEC.org.

On behalf of the Museum board, volunteers and staff members, I wish you and your families a healthy, safe and very happy New Year! Hope to see you at the Museum or on Zoom in 2022!