Hip-Hop Star Visits
Auschwitz Memorial Exhibition
By
Shlomo Shamir
2/23/2005
| Hip-hop music entrepreneur
Russell Simmons visited an exhibit of photographs
of Auschwitz on view at the United Nations headquarters in New York
on Tuesday.
Senior
Jewish community members said Simmons' visit holds "special significance"
for Holocaust commemoration efforts, especially in New York City
public schools.
Deeply
involved in activities against anti-Semitism in recent years,
Simmons is considered
to be an influential figure in Afro-American and Hispanic communities
in the United States.
Senior
officials from the Israeli consulate in New York received Simmons
upon arrival to the exhibition. The hip-hop star and founder of
Def Jam Records was accompanied by Orthodox Rabbi Marc Schneier.
Along with Simmons,
Schneier heads the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, an organization
dedicated to strengthening relations between Jews, Afro-Americans,
Hispanics and other ethnic communities.
|
|
| Russell
Simmons is considered to be an influential figure in Afro-American
and Hispanic communities. (Archive) |
The "Depth of the Abyss" exhibition presents dozens of
photos of the Auschwitz. The photographs were lent by the Yad Vashem
Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority and the Holocaust
Museum in Washington DC as part of the UN's commemoration of the
60th anniversary of the camp's liberation. |
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Copyright © 2005 The Foundation For Ethnic Understanding
The
Foundation for Ethnic Understanding was founded in 1989 by Rabbi Marc
Schneier and the late Joseph Papp.
We are committed to the belief that direct, face-to-face, dialogue between
leaders of ethnic communities
is the most effective path toward the reduction of bigotry and the promotion
of reconciliation and understanding.
1 East 93rd Street, Suite #1C
New York, New York, 10128
ffeu@ffeu.org
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