JewsByChoice.Org

With a population of 600,000+, 75% of which is Latino, El Paso, Texas is the last place one would think to look for a significant amount of Jews. One Chabad, one conservative, and one reform shul are all the choices available if you are one of the few Jews who call El Paso home and the city boasts only one kosher market which only recently opened. It was surprising considering the demographics, when we drove through Downtown El Paso last year and saw a sign on the side of a building that read “Holocaust Museum Opening Soon.” We recently spent three days in El Paso and decided to take Mark’s parents to visit the small, but powerful El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center in order to take the opportunity to share with them the modern history of the world’s Jewry.

Home to Fort Bliss, El Paso became home to many Jewish soldiers who were sent overseas during the war and who participated in the liberation of internment camps. A handful of survivors also found their way to this small section of Texas and from what we could discern from the museum exhibit, several Holocaust survivors currently reside within the city limits. One of these survivors, Henry Kellen, decided to raise the funds to educate the public about the atrocities of WWII.

The final result was a bilingual museum, essentially a self-guided exhibit housed in a single, one story building, but reminiscent of the Museum of Tolerance in ambition and strength of message. What sets it apart from other museums is it’s complete dedication to showcasing the history in both English and Spanish allowing for the dissemination of information to flow through the obstacles faced by a bicultural and bilingual population. Being Mexican-American and having parents who had not met Jews until their children became ones, visiting this museum gave us the opportunity to discuss the community and people we have embraced while simultaneously allowing us to embrace Mark’s Texan roots and our lingual background.

It was amazing to see Mark’s parents’ reaction once they saw their grandchild’s face juxtaposed with the zyklon B used to kill Jews. We could see in their eyes that their disgust was enhanced by the fact that they accepted their grandson as a Jew and that they saw the Holocaust as a legitimate part of his history. We are lucky to be blessed with such empathetic parents and are grateful to Henry Kellen for putting together the Holocaust Museum in El Paso to help spread the message to Spanish speaking natives of the southwest. If you find yourself in El Paso or the immediate area it is a definite must see. It seems to be a grassroots operation supported by a very small community and I’m sure they would appreciate the patronage (admission is free but donations, however small, are welcomed).