Gabrielle Russon
The House is failing to go along with proposed funding for several Holocaust museum projects across the state.
St. Petersburg’s Florida Holocaust Museum was chosen to hold a permanent exhibit to preserve the legacy of Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who later won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Senate is proposing to fund the exhibit with $850,000 while the House doesn’t want to fund it at all.
“The Florida Holocaust Museum and the Elie Wiesel Foundation are thrilled to announce that the Museum has been chosen as the permanent home of Elie Wiesel’s entire collection, including his Nobel prize, the entire contents of his personal office and library, unfinished manuscripts, letters from world leaders and other luminaries, and a variety of artworks, photographs, recordings — some of which have never been seen,” the museum said in a press release last year.
The museum also is seeking to build a facility to hold Wiesel’s permanent collection. The Senate wants to allocate $2.5 million for the project, while the House calls to spend $0.
Another line item — Holocaust museum safety and security — is in debate. The Senate wants $100,000 in funding versus the House’s $50,000.
To restore a Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach, the Senate’s latest offer is to spend $500,000, while the House wants to budget $250,000.
The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, located in Broward County’s Dania Beach, is seeking funding for an exhibit with an authentic Holocaust Rail Car and a U.S. Sherman Tank, which helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp. The House proposes $250,000 in funding, half of what the Senate proposed.
That is similar to another boxcar exhibit at a Holocaust museum, where the House proposes $100,000 compared to the Senate’s $200,000.
In the health care budget, the two Chambers are also apart on antisemitism safety programming at Chabad of Kendall and Pinecrest in Miami. The House is at $2 million compared to the Senate’s $2.25 million offer.
Learning the lessons from the Holocaust and remembering the victims was one issue lawmakers took up this Legislative Session.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation last month to make Jan. 27 Florida’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Lawmakers said the day is important in the wake of some young people not knowing history and amid a wave of antisemitic attacks.
“Over the past few years, Florida has actually seen over 1,200 reported incidents of antisemitic harassment, propaganda, vandalism, assaults, extremist events, terroristic plots and even murders right here in our Sunshine State,” said Democratic Rep. Debra Tendrich.
“This bill is personal to me, but it should be personal to every single person in this room, because there’s not a member here in this chamber where antisemitism hasn’t touched their constituents in one form or another.”
