Minister mulls funding for JHC expansion
VICTORIAN Multicultural Affairs Minister Robin Scott will consider a state government grant to help the Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) expand its facilities and open a special museum appropriate for young children.
VICTORIAN Multicultural Affairs Minister Robin Scott will consider a state government grant to help the Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) expand its facilities and open a special museum appropriate for young children.
Scott, who is no stranger to the museum, visited the JHC for the first time recently as a government minister, and was shown through by JHC executive director Warren Fineberg, president Pauline Rockman, and community relations coordinator Michael Cohen, with survivor guide Abe Goldberg providing stark insights about the Shoah.
The minister was also shown blueprints for the centre’s $10 million expansion plans, which will increase its size by one third, and will include a museum and teaching spaces geared to the sensitivities of young children, who cannot be shown the more graphic exhibits in the main museum.
Rockman said research has shown that children who are taught important historical lessons early in life, in an age-appropriate manner, turn out to be more mindful of issues relating to racial and religious hatred.
Scott also addressed students from Gladstone Park Secondary College who were visiting the centre, reminding them that the lesson of the Holocaust is that they, as young Victorians, need to “give all people their individual dignity and treat them as equals to yourselves, and forever be on guard against racism”.
Some 200 Victorian schoolchildren visit the centre each day and around one third of Victoria’s 2000 secondary schools have already taken part in the tours.
Asked about his impressions of the museum, Scott told The AJN that visiting it is “a confronting experience, but it’s important that the lessons of the past are never forgotten”.
Quizzed on the funding proposals put to him at the JHC briefing, the minister said: “We will look at this and give it fair consideration. The work of the Holocaust Centre is really important, it is something the Victorian government really honours, and we’re happy to sit down with the museum and work through how we can help.”
The former state Liberal government had already committed $500,000 to expanding the centre and Caulfield MP David Southwick, who had invited Scott to visit the JHC in an adjournment speech in Parliament on May 26, told The AJN he was hopeful this “core” amount would be kept on the table by the present government.
During the ministerial visit, Southwick told JHC management he was encouraged by the “bipartisan” approach that he and Scott had been able to develop in regard to the JHC.
PETER KOHN
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