On Sunday, Jan. 26,Samara Hutman, standing in a gallery at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, pointed to the walls displaying David Miller's large photographs of Holocaust survivors and said, “These are our neighbors.”
She was speaking literally—the portraits that line the temporary exhibition space at the museum in Pan Pacific Park are of Holocaust survivors who live in Los Angeles.
Hutman, the museum's director, spoke to the dozens of survivors and their families and friends who had come to the museum for the opening of the exhibition, “Survivor Portraits From The Jewish Journal.”
The installation showcases 29 selected works from the Jewish Journal's ongoing series, “Survivor,” a bi-weekly series of profiles written by Jane Ulman and accompanied by Miller's photos that has run in the Jewish Journal since Yom Kippur in 2012.
Each evocative portrait in the show is accompanied by an excerpt from Ulman's deeply moving stories, which can be found in long form in the show's catalog and on the Journal's Web site, jewishjournal.com.
“These are the stories of survivors—ordinary people who made the extraordinary choice to fight despair, to embrace life, to live again,” Jewish Journal Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Rob Eshman wrote in the introduction to the show's catalog .
At the show's opening, many of the survivors featured in the series posed for pictures by their portraits.
“These are not the stories that have been turned into Holocaust movies or books,” Eshman wrote. “They are about, if such a word could possibly apply, regular survivors—ordinary people who made the extraordinary choice to fight despair, to embrace life, to live again.
Admission is free to the museum, which is located at 100 S. The Grove Drive | Los Angeles, Ca. 90036. For more information: (323) 651-3704. info@lamoth.org
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