Social Lab

In the Social Lab, visitors focus on the major issues of intolerance that are part of daily life.

Exhibits include:



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The Point of View Experience
An immense, four-sided glass cube presents a different individual’s perspective on a particular situation facing society. The scenarios are dramatic recreations of each person’s point of view based on real topics that include homelessness, LGBTQ+ issues, bullying, the challenges of policing, and civil unrest. Visitors will experience everyday scenarios from distinct points of view revealing how often a change in perspective may reveal an altogether different story.



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The Forum
Visitors will examine and debate solutions to controversial topics facing our nation today such as immigration, policing, homelessness, the pandemic, and bigotry and hate. Designed for collaboration with others seated around you, visitors will hear from people on screen as well as those sitting around them on all sides in order to come up with creative and cooperative solutions to real issues. Museum goers will learn how working together can lead to consensus as well as promote real change.



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Global Crisis Center
Crises affecting our world today are explored in the Global Crisis Center from the world refugee crisis, climate change and the environment, to the pandemic, the crisis of world leadership, and the spread of nuclear and chemical weapons. How we react to these very real crises internationally will define who and how we will forever alter our planet—positively or negatively. This is an opportunity for visitors to the Museum of Tolerance to experience what world leaders deal with when a crisis, or often multiple crises develop. What can you, as an individual and as part of a greater society do to help?



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"Civil Rights Exhibit"
A combination of two filmic presentations explores civil rights in the US. The first, Ain’t You Got A Right, is one of the original exhibits of the Museum of Tolerance that looks at the history of the struggle for civil rights in the United States. Martin Luther King, John Lewis, Fannie Lee Hamer, and many others who risked their lives to fight for equal rights of Black Americans are featured in this moving presentation. A new film, Path to Social Justice, looks at the work that still needs to be done to bring equality to all Americans, no matter what their race, ethnicity or religion.



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We the People
United States history from the 1600’s up to the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 is examined in an immense, interactive wall consisting of large 4K touch screens spanning half the length of the Museum’s Social Lab. This extraordinary kaleidoscope addresses America’s diversity and shows in many ways her great creativity and innovation but also addresses the challenges and ongoing struggle for equal rights. Visitors learn how the American dream, with its promise of freedom and justice for all, is not, to paraphrase Simon Wiesenthal, just a gift from heaven, but something which people have to fight for each and every day.



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The Oldest Hate Continues
The dangerous increase in anti-Semitism around the world is highlighted in The Oldest Hate Continues. Since time immemorial, the Jewish people have been the target of antipathy, prejudice, and murder. But after the gates of the Nazi death camps were opened when the Holocaust ended, there was hope that the oldest hatred would finally cease. Instead, anti-Semitism continued and new forms of Jew hatred emerged: anti-Zionism, BDS, Q-Anon, Islamic extremism, just to name a few. Anti-Semitic activity, especially acts of violence, are at their highest levels since the Nazi Holocaust. Although The Oldest Hate Continues does not paint a pretty picture, it also provides hope for the future that if we sound the alarm and take action, it may be possible to prevent its spread.