The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received a $20 million donation from the Samerian Foundation of Indianapolis from founders Cindy Simon-Skjodt and Paul Skjodt to advance the prevention of genocide.
Simon-Skjodt’s charity might be familiar to IU students. In 2013, she contributed $40 million to the renovation of Assembly Hall, to be renamed the Simon-Skjodt Assembly Hall on completion of renovations.
The Museum’s Center for the Prevention of Genocide has been renamed the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, according to a Holocaust Museum press release.
The endowment will be used to advance the museum’s genocide prevention mission by making the museum a global leader in the field and ensuring that genocide prevention remains a global priority, according to a Samerian Foundation statement.
The Samerian Foundation, founded in 2003, mainly serves central Indiana through grants for education, economic development, health, community organizations and humanitarian projects.
However, the foundation will make exceptions to help fund special out-of-state projects, such as this project, according to the foundation’s website.
“Our motivation in making this gift is to inspire other people to become ?involved in preventing genocide,” Simon-Skjodt said in the statement. “If we can help move this mission forward even a fraction, then we will have accomplished something meaningful for future ?generations.”
The Center seeks to make genocide prevention a global priority through research, education and public outreach, according to the ?statement.
More concretely, the Center seeks to develop early warning and dangerous speech initiatives to expand the understanding of genocide and educate the public of genocide warning signs.
“The permanence of the United States ?Holocaust Memorial Museum and this generous gift from the Samerian Foundation enable us to sustain momentum and further advance the field of genocide prevention,” said Cameron Hudson, director of the Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of ?Genocide.
The gift will also help fund the museum-sponsored Genocide Prevention Task Force, whose goals include equipping government leaders around the world with genocide prevention tools, according to the statement.
Cindy Simon-Skjodt is the daughter of the late real estate magnate Melvin Simon, former Indiana Pacers co-owner and founder of the Simon Mall Property Group, now the largest shopping mall company in the United States, which began as a private business in Indianapolis in 1959.
The family also supports an overseas scholarship through the College of Arts and Sciences and sponsored the Bess Meshulam Simon Music Library on the IU-Bloomington campus.
Other Indiana charities that have been given grants by the Samerian Foundation include the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Children’s Museum and the Indianapolis Zoo, among many others, according to the ?foundation’s website.
