Barry Manilow, Steven Skybell, And Julianna Margulies Endorse Museum Of Jewish Heritage

The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is releasing a series of digital spots from celebrities and elected officials that encourage people to visit the most comprehensive Holocaust exhibition about Auschwitz ever exhibited in North America. Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.The groundbreaking exhibition is now open through January 3, 2020 in New York City.

The digital spots are running on digital platforms Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. They feature:

· Internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Barry Manilow- who is now in a limited engagement at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway - and his co-songwriter Bruce Sussman, who together created the musical, "Harmony," set in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s;

· Emmy Award-winning actor Julianna Margulies;

· U.S. Congressmember Carolyn Maloney, a proponent of Holocaust education;

· Dr. Ruth Westheimer;

· New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson; and,

· Theatrical award nominee and winner Steven Skybell, currently starring in the Off-Broadway production of "Fiddler on the Roof" in Yiddish.

"Since the exhibition's opening in May, more than 75,000 people have already born witness to the dehumanization and destruction perpetrated at Auschwitz," saidJack Kliger, President & CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. "We are grateful to the public figures who have given their time to show support for this important and timely exhibition. Together, we must combat hatred in our country and our world, and raise awareness so that the evils of the past are not repeated."

"We can never erase from our memory the knowledge that at least six million Jewish people were murdered. Six million. Many people are claiming, incredibly, that the Holocaust never happened. That is one reason why this exhibit is so important. All people, especially young people, must never forget what happened," Barry Manilowsaid.

"In a world of skyrocketing rates of antisemitism, Holocaust education is critical," Rep.Carolyn Maloneysaid. "We must fight to ensure that our nation understands the horrors of the Holocaust, and the intolerance and bigotry that led to it. I hope people are able to grasp the reality of the Holocaust as they take in the stories of survivors, see photos, and examine items from Auschwitz. I want them to connect to all those who died at or survived Auschwitz, who lost loved ones there, who have family members who will never be the same because of the horrors they saw. I hope the Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. exhibit motivates all of us to battle brutality, ethnic violence, and religious intolerance of all kinds."

"The lessons of the Holocaust are as universal and brutally true today as they were in the 1940s, and it is incumbent upon all of us to share those lessons with the world so the horrors of Auschwitz are never repeated," New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnsonsaid. "I applaud the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust for putting on this exhibition that illustrates so vividly the very worst of humanity and conveys a disgusting part of human history that is so difficult to imagine. I hope this comprehensive exhibition forces all of us to think about how we can all work together to build a better world for ourselves and future generations."

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.was conceived of by the international exhibition firm Musealia and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and curated by an international panel of experts, including world-renowned scholars Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt, Dr. Michael Berenbaum, and Paul Salmons, in an unprecedented collaboration with historians and curators at the Research Center at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, led by Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz.

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.arrived in New York City after the exhibition completed a successful run at Madrid's Arte Canal Exhibition Centre, where it was extended two times, drew more than 600,000 visitors, and was one of the most visited exhibitions in Europe last year. The exhibition explores the dual identity of the camp as a physical location-the largest documented mass murder site in human history-and as a symbol of the borderless manifestation of hatred and human barbarity.

Featuring more than 700 original objects and 400 photographs, mainly from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the New York presentation of the exhibition allows visitors to experience artifacts from more than 20 international museums and institutions on view for the first time in the North America, including hundreds of personal items-such as suitcases, eyeglasses, and shoes-that belonged to survivors and victims of Auschwitz. Other artifacts include: concrete posts that were part of the fence of the Auschwitz camp; part of an original barrack for prisoners from the Auschwitz III-Monowitz camp; a desk and other possessions of the first and the longest-serving Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss; a gas mask used by the SS; Picasso'sLithograph of Prisoner; and an original German-made Model 2 freight train car used for the deportation of Jews to the ghettos and extermination camps in occupied Poland.

The exhibition features artifacts and materials on loan from more than 20 institutions and private collections around the world. In addition to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, participating institutions include Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, Auschwitz Jewish Center in O?wi?cim, the Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen in Oranienburg, and the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide in London.

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.traces the development of Nazi ideology and tells the transformation of Auschwitz from an ordinary Polish town known as O?wi?cim to the most significant Nazi site of the Holocaust-at which ca. 1 million Jews, and tens of thousands of others, were murdered. Victims included Polish political prisoners, Sinti and Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, Jehovah's Witnesses, and those the Nazis deemed "homosexual," "disabled," "criminal," "inferior," or adversarial in countless other ways. In addition, the exhibition contains artifacts that depict the world of the perpetrators-SS men who created and operated the largest of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camps.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust has incorporated into the exhibition nearly 100 rare artifacts from its collection that relay the experience of survivors and liberators who found refuge in the greater New York area. These artifacts include: Alfred Kantor's sketchbook and portfolio that contain over 150 original paintings and drawings from Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, and Schwarzheide; the trumpet that musician Louis Bannet (acclaimed as "the Dutch Louis Armstrong") credits for saving his life while he was imprisoned in Auschwitz; visas issued by Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania often referred to as "Japan's Oskar Schindler"; prisoner registration forms and identification cards; personal correspondence; tickets for passage on the St. Louis; and a rescued Torah scroll from the Bornplatz Synagogue in Hamburg.

Also on display from the Museum's collection is Heinrich Himmler's SS helmet and his annotated copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf, as well as ananti-Jewish proclamation issued in 1551 by Ferdinand I that was given to Hermann Göring by German security chief Reinhard Heydrich on the occasion of Göring's birthday. The proclamation required Jews to identify themselves with a "yellow ring" on their clothes. Heydrich noted that, 400 years later, the Nazis were completing Ferdinand's work. These artifacts stand as evidence of a chapter in history that must never be forgotten.

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.is presented in the symbolic, hexagonally-shaped building at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. This 18,000-square-foot exhibition introduces artifacts and Holocaust survivor testimony through 20 thematic galleries. At the conclusion of this presentation, the Museum will debut its new permanent core exhibition.

Throughout its presentation of Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away., the Museum is hosting a series of related public, educational, and scholarly programming, featuring world-renowned experts on the Holocaust. The Museum also is expanding its work with students in the tri-state area and introducing complementary educational tools for in-class and onsite use.

To date, more than 70,000 people already have attended the exhibition. Following the New York presentation, the exhibition is intended to tour other cities around the world.Musealia and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum will announce the next destination at a later date.

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is made possible with lead support by Bruce C. Ratner, George and Adele Klein Family Foundation, Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert, and Larry and Klara Silverstein & Family. The exhibition is presented in part with major support by The David Berg Foundation, Patti Askwith Kenner, The Oster Family Foundation, and The Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust. The New York premiere is made possible in part by Simon & Stefany Bergson with additional support from The Knapp Family Foundation.

Contact the Museum at 646.437.4304 or groupvisits@mjhnyc.org. See Auschwitz.nyc for more information. For more information, visit mjhnyc.org.