The Holocaust Museum LA has announced a $5 million challenge grant from the Smidt Foundation in support of constructing a new campus and expanding programs and services.

The gift from foundation co-founders Susan Smidt and her husband, Eric, CEO of Harbor Freight Tools, is the largest in the museum’s 60-year history and will match—two for one—contributions toward the development of the museum’s Jona Goldrich Campus, which is set to open in 2024. The new facility will triple museum capacity to 150,000 visitors annually and include outdoor spaces and galleries as well as classrooms, a mixed-use auditorium, and a dedicated theater to house the USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony exhibition, which uses voice recognition technology for visitors to have a virtual conversation with a Holocaust survivor.

According to the museum, the number of antisemitic incidents across the United States increased 34 percent in 2021. The expansion of the museum and its programs is part of an effort to reverse the rise in antisemitism and other forms of hatred that have led more than half of all Asian, Black, and Latino Americans to say they feel discriminated against, according to the museum.

“[This gift enables] us to amplify the museum’s reach and impact and meet the urgent need to educate future generations about the Holocaust and about the tragic cost of hatred,” said Holocaust Museum LA chief executive Beth Kean. “The Smidt Foundation’s gift underscores our guiding principle that education is our greatest catalyst for change and furthers our mission to inspire a more dignified and humane world.”

“This gift is about taking a stand against hatred, racism, antisemitism, and bigotry,” said Susan Smidt. “Holocaust Museum LA will help teach Angelenos how to do that for generations to come.”

(Photo credit: Holocaust Museum LA)