State and local officials helped to break ground Thursday on a new Holocaust education museum in Phoenix.
The nearly 29,000-square-foot project is at the site of Phoenix’s first synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel, which opened in October 1921.
Gov. Katie Hobbs and other officials were joined by Holocaust survivors and members of the Jewish Historical Society.
Hobbs noted that the groundbreaking came on the heels of two Israeli ambassadors being killed in Washington, D.C., as well as an attack on Jews in Boulder, Colorado.
“These acts and the overall rise in antisemitism happening across the country makes what we are doing here today so important," Hobbs said.
Steve Hilton is project chair for the Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center.
"This center will be a place where students from every background will come to learn, to question, and to reflect. It will challenge them not only to remember but to act, to see the warning signs of antisemitism and bigotry," Hilton said.
The museum near Interstate 10 and Central Avenue is expected to open April 2027.
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