Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus

The Zekelman Holocaust Center, found as the Holocaust Memorial Center (The HC), was founded by Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig with his fellow members of Shaarit Haplaytah. It took nearly twenty years of planning and grassroots fundraising before being ready to build. Ground was broken for the Holocaust Memorial Center on the property of the Jewish Community Campus at Maple and Drake Roads in West Bloomfield, Michigan, on December 6, 1981. Almost three years later, in October 1984, the HC was opened. When the organization outgrew its original location, it built a new museum on the grounds of the Old Orchard Theatre on Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills. The Center's new design received front-page coverage in the Wall Street Journal, with a headline asking,"Should a Museum Look as Disturbing as What it Portrays". Each year, HMC reached more than 100,000 people through teacher trainings, virtual museum experiences, virtual programs, and in-person visits to the museum. As the Center continues to grow, so have educational outreach efforts. To aid teachers in meeting the Holocaust education mandate of Michigan Public Act 170, the teacher trainings now reach schools in nearly every county. In addition, development of new relationships with school districts and virtual schools, understanding their needs so that every student in the state has equitable access to Holocaust education.