Deukmejian Gets Bill Allocating $5 Million for Tolerance Museum

A bill granting the private Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies $5 million in taxpayer funds for its planned Museum of Tolerance in West Los Angeles sailed through the Legislature Thursday and went to Gov. George Deukmejian.

Neither Deukmejian nor the state Department of Finance have taken a position on the legislation, which has split the Jewish community in Los Angeles.

The measure by Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) was approved by the Assembly on a 58-7 vote and returned to the Senate, which concurred in amendments 32-3.

Under Roberti’s legislation, the private, nonprofit center would be given a one-time $5-million grant for the museum, which must be matched by private funds. The center has already raised an estimated $12 million toward construction of a new $20-million complex.

The museum would be housed inside the new structure, which would be situated next to the center’s existing building on Pico Boulevard. Ground-breaking is scheduled for November.

Supporters argued that the Wiesenthal Center, which has become one of the most vocal Jewish organizations in the United States and Canada since its founding in 1977, is the group best-equipped to help the state fulfill its duty to combat all forms of prejudice. The center, named in honor of Vienna-based Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, has been active in the hunt for Nazi war criminals, produced an Academy Award-winning documentary entitled “Genocide,” and conducts research on anti-Semitism.

Some critics countered that the museum is a worthy idea but should be developed by the state and not by a single, private group. Others contended that the legislation appears to cross the constitutional line separating church and state since the center until recently was part of Yeshiva University of Los Angeles, a religious organization.

During Senate floor debate, Roberti said that he had made the bill a top priority because “the state has a very definite obligation to educate and to teach in regard to prejudice and how we can help combat prejudice.”

Moreover, he said, the museum would not be limited to examining the slaughter of millions of Jews and others in Europe by the Nazis during World War II. He explained that backers plan exhibits on mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I.

Roberti brushed aside charges by critics that he included a reference to Armenian genocide in the bill as a way to win the signature of Deukmejian, who is of Armenian descent.

Roberti said he included the Armenians because Hitler used their genocide to justify his murders of Jews. Roberti reminded his colleagues that Hitler was reported to have said in 1939, “After all, who today remembers the extermination of the Armenians?”

But Sen. Ralph C. Dills (D-Gardena) vigorously opposed the bill on grounds that the proposal would open the door for other religious or private groups to seek state funds.

“We’re setting an extremely bad precedent,” he warned. “We will rue the day that we do so.”

Although relatively non-controversial when it was introduced in January, the measure in recent months has drawn opposition from several major organizations, including the American Jewish Committee and four California chapters of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.

In a joint statement, the ADL chapters said: “We believe the museum should be located on public property under the direction of an appropriate public and academic governing body.”

The Wiesenthal Center, formed with major backing from financiers Samuel and William Belzberg, has orchestrated a major campaign to support the bill.

As a result, 6,000 cards and letters of support were sent to Roberti, said an assistant to the senator. The center also rounded up support from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, the Armenian National Committee’s western region and the Armenian Assembly of America.

Voting against the bill were Sens. Dills, Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) and Walter W. Stiern (D-Bakersfield). In the Assembly, “no” votes were cast by Republicans Gil Ferguson of Newport Beach, Bill Bradley of San Marcos, Dennis Brown of Signal Hill, Marian W. La Follette of Northridge, John R. Lewis of Orange, Richard L. Mountjoy of Monrovia and Eric Seastrand of Salinas.