Museum of Tolerance

What is Museum of Tolerance?

The museum is built around multimedia exhibits rather than quiet rooms of objects. The Holocaust forms the core of the story, but the museum widens the lens to other atrocities, including those in Cambodia and Latin America, and to present-day problems such as bullying and hate crimes.

Its purpose is educational. The exhibits ask visitors to think about how prejudice works, not only to learn dates and names, and that approach makes the visit as much about reflection as about history.

History of Museum of Tolerance

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights organization, established the museum in 1993 as its educational wing. The center also runs a related museum and a multimedia training center for professionals in New York City, extending the same program to the East Coast. Its focus on the Holocaust is reflected in the Hebrew name the museum carries. The Los Angeles museum is counted among the Holocaust memorials and museums of the United States.

Visiting Museum of Tolerance: tips

Allow two to three hours; the exhibits are dense and emotionally heavy. The museum has wheelchair access. It closes for the Jewish Sabbath on Saturdays and for major Jewish and US holidays, so check the calendar before planning your day.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology and the Bhagavad-gita Museum are each about 2 miles away. The former Annenberg Space for Photography, about 0.8 miles off, has closed for good. Fuel is about 0.1 miles away, and a restaurant and a hotel are each about 0.2 miles off.