Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity, sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is an international Jewish human rights organization headquartered in California. The construction of the approximately $200 million Museum began in June 2005 and has been discontinued after objections from Muslims regarding its location. The Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity is in place of a four-story underground parking structure adjacent to Jerusalem’s Independence Park. The park is on the grounds of the Mamilla Cemetery.
The project has been implemented to promote tolerance amongst Jewish populations within Israel, as stated by the Wiesenthal Center.
The new museum complex has been designed by Frank Gehry and resembles a fruit bowl. The center features an unusual amorphic shape and is clad in glass and titanium. The structure resembles that of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, which is also designed by Frank Gehry. The center has been designed to include a museum, a theater, a conference hall, a library, and an educational center.
Opposition towards the project is very severe as the work involves unearthing hundreds of skeletons and reentering them at the margins of the site.
The original Museum of Tolerance (MOT) is a multimedia museum opened in Los Angeles, California in 1993. Frank Gehry is a Polish Jewish architect based in Los Angeles, California. His best-known works include Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Experience Music Project in Minneapolis, Dancing House in Czech Republic and the MARTA Museum in Germany.
