SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Community leaders and philanthropists are taking the first major steps toward establishing San Diego’s first permanent Holocaust museum, following a recent gathering aimed at building support for the effort.
An image of Holocaust survivor Ruth Saks stands beside an original concentration camp uniform, a centerpiece of the recent RUTH fundraising event. (Courtesy of RUTH: Remember Us The Holocaust initiative)
The event, held last week at the La Jolla home of entrepreneur and philanthropist Irwin Jacobs, brought together more than 70 leaders from across San Diego’s civic, educational and cultural communities, according to Dr. Moisés Salinas Fleitman, the executive consultant for RUTH: Remember Us The Holocaust.
RUTH is a traveling, free educational exhibit founded by Sandra Scheller — the daughter of Holocaust survivors — to preserve the stories of local survivors, with a current installation at the La Jolla/Riford Library running through June 15, 2026. The exhibit features life-size cutouts of survivors and authentic artifacts.
Dr. Fleitman said the recent gathering focused on advancing RUTH.
San Diego County Assessor Jordan Z. Marks emceed the event, which highlighted growing momentum behind the project and the urgency of documenting survivors stories while firsthand accounts are still available.
Organizers say the proposed museum would serve as a permanent home for hundreds of historical artifacts and provide educational programming centered on survivor testimony.
The initiative builds on the success of the RUTH, which has reached tens of thousands of students, educators and families across Southern California over the pat decade, Dr. Fleitman explained.
The exhibit is expected to move to the Central Library in downtown San Diego next, continuing its course of educating the public about the Holocaust.
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“A single uniform can speak,” Scheller said during last week’s event. “The artifacts carry the voices of the survivors. They are what remain: evidence, memory, truth.”
Dr. Fleitman went on to emphasize the importance of creating a permanent space for remembrance.
“Memory needs an address,” he said. “As the eyewitness generation of Holocaust survivors is leaving us, we have a responsibility to preserve their voices and testimony, and the physical evidence of what happened.”
The effort comes as San Diego remains one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States without a permanent Holocaust museum.
Organizers say the next phase of the project will focus on fundraising, building community partnerships and advancing plans to bring the museum to life.
A location for the proposed museum has not yet been announced.
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