Simon Wiesenthal Center
IMPACT REPORT
Recent accomplishments made possible by
your support
The past couple of years have been complicated for the Jewish community worldwide. Throughout this challenging time, we at the Simon Wiesenthal Center have continued our work to confront antisemitism and hate, defend Israel and Jews worldwide, and preserve the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations.
Please take a moment to review this impact report and the recent accomplishments made possible by your support.
Educational Programming
The educational division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center has expanded and taken on a national scope.
Our Combat Hate program, which engages students in critical thinking for decoding and rejecting online hate, is being taught in New York City and Chicago schools, and reached nearly 27,000 students across 76 schools in the past year.
Our Mobile Museums of Tolerance (MMOT) launched in Illinois in 2021 and hit the road in New York, Florida, and Massachusetts in 2024 and 2025. This 30-seat, state-of-the-art mobile classroom delivers a field trip experience right to your doorstep. Led by a licensed educator, the MMOTs use immersive technology and facilitated dialogue to deliver workshops that cover topics including antisemitism, the lessons of the Holocaust, the civil rights movement, and decoding online hate.
At our LA-based Museum of Tolerance, nearly 53,000 students toured our exhibits in the past year alone, and over 6,000 participated in our virtual programming across the country. Student visitors experience our Holocaust exhibit and the Social Lab, where they actively explore the dynamics of prejudice and discrimination throughout history and in today's world. In the Holocaust exhibit, students receive a card that tells the story of a child whose life was drastically changed by the Holocaust. Our Anne Frank tour sheds light on the famous teenager's family background and reveals little-known details of her childhood.
Our Tools for Tolerance programming, available to both student groups and professionals, serves tens of thousands of pupils, educators, and law enforcement officers. The program for law enforcement and criminal justice professionals offers courses on cultural diversity, hate crimes, as well as racial and identity profiling, while our educator training supports California’s Education to End Hate initiative, empowering teachers to address antisemitism and hate speech in school.
Students visiting the Mobile Museum of Tolerance.
"Thank you for sharing your story about your parents’ experience during the Holocaust. You and the Museum have inspired me to learn more about World War II, but mostly the Holocaust. I hope when I’m doing my research, I can find a way to honor the living and the dead. Thank you again for leading our tour."
-Alden, 9th grade
Museums
MOT & MMOT
89,307 student visitors
6,396 students
attended virtual workshops
3,061 law enforcement individuals
virtually trained
5,076 educators
attended programming
Combat Hate
Illinois
reached 22 schools & 6,105 students
New York
reached 54 schools & 20,760 students
Argentina Opening Archives
Continuing the legacy of our namesake, Simon Wiesenthal, our Latin American office has secured Argentinian President Javier Milei’s permission to access classified documents related to the financing of “ratlines,” the routes by which Nazi fugitives escaped Europe to Argentina after the Holocaust. Up to 5,000 Nazis and other fascist war criminals fled to Argentina, including Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele.
“Especially in a post-October 7 world, those who financed, facilitated, or otherwise assisted these ratlines must be held accountable,” said the Center’s Rabbi Abraham Cooper. Centro Simon Wiesenthal Director Ariel Gelblung, who runs the South American office, said all Argentinians could be proud of Milei’s commitment to exposing the truth.
Director of Global Social Action Rabbi Abraham Cooper greeting President Javier Milei.
Combat Hate Fellowship
Students working with SWC educators at Hillcrest High School.
In November of 2023, close on the heels of the October 7 attacks in Israel, a teacher at Hillcrest High School in Queens was trapped in her classroom by hundreds of students chanting threats, demanding she be fired, and destroying property because of a Facebook photo of the teacher holding a sign reading “I Stand With Israel.”
In response to the incident, the Simon Wiesenthal Center partnered with the New Visions Schools of New York City’s Department of Education, the New York City Council, and the Tanner-Frank Foundation of New York to create the pilot program of Combat Hate.
The initial cohort numbered 26 upperclassmen, including students from Hillcrest. After illustrating the viability of the program to NYC’s Department of Education, Combat Hate is now being implemented across districts in New York and Illinois.
Tomer Peretz, The Museum of Tolerance’s Inaugural Artist in Residence
The Hostage by Tomer Peretz, 2024. Oil on canvas.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Los Angeles-based Museum of Tolerance is hosting its inaugural artist in residence, Israeli-American painter Tomer Peretz, whose exhibit ART WILL S8T YOU FREE will be on view until May 30. This special installation is an artistic response to the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and is a continuation of Peretz’s layered collaborations with a community of trauma survivors, including former hostages, IDF soldiers, and victims of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Peretz was in Tel Aviv on October 7, when the terrorists launched their brutal invasion of southern Israel, and he volunteered to help disaster response teams collect bodies from Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the deadliest sites in the attack.
In early February, ten IDF veterans from Israel’s Golani Brigade—Peretz’s old unit—who fought Hamas and their allies on October 7 gathered at the Museum of Tolerance for a powerful art therapy session to help process their grief and collective trauma.
Tomer Peretz (right) with rescued October 7 hostage Andre Kozlov at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
Digital Terrorism and Hate Report
For more than 25 years, the Digital Terrorism and Hate Project, run by the Center’s research department, has explored how extremists promote their ideologies and recruit new members online. In 2024, our research team released a report on the use of cyberterrorism in the Israel-Hamas War—its data culled from monitoring over 7,000 groups, individuals, and online channels.
Following the October 7 attacks in Israel, there was a surge in cyberterrorism and cyberattacks on Jewish websites, and online calls for violence against Israel, Zionists, and Jews increased 1,200%. Cyberterrorists targeted Israeli energy, defense, and telecommunications sectors, as well as infrastructure and individual citizens.
The Center identified more than 40 entities that participated and collaborated in these cyberterror attacks on Israel. Working with law enforcement to protect the Jewish people and Israel, we continue to uncover antisemitism and hate on the dark web and in channels across the internet. Our newest Digital Terrorism and Hate Report will be released on Tuesday, April 29.
Building a Pipeline of Leaders
SWC interns at New York City Hall.
Since its inception in 2016, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has had 226 college interns go through our NextGen Government Advocacy and International Advocacy programs. These students come from around the country to spend a summer in New York City working for legislators, government agencies, consulates, UN missions, and international organizations. The students receive one-on-one mentorship and attend weekly sessions with elected officials and coalition-builders to learn how to become effective advocates.
Samantha Stern, current president of the NextGen alumni association, interned for Leticia James when she was the public advocate for New York City and worked evenings on James’ campaign for attorney general. “I sort of got a 2-in-1 experience that summer, beyond my wildest dreams,” Stern said. She learned that “you can be an outspoken leader, telling people what to do and how they should live their lives, or you can be the kind of leader who leads by example. I think leadership is really showing and doing the things that you wish to see in the world.”
Bringing Holocaust Education to India
Continuing his work to bring the impact of the Simon Wiesenthal Center around the world, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Director of Global Social Action, brought our traveling exhibit Courage to Remember to the Kadavumbagam Synagogue in Kochi, India, which dates back to 1200 CE and is the oldest synagogue on the Indian subcontinent. The synagogue, whose membership dwindled in the 1960s until its closure in 1972, is now reopened.
Courage to Remember is a 40-panel traveling exhibit on the Holocaust that has been viewed on six continents and continues to be displayed in cities across the United States, Asia and Africa.
SWC Global Social Action Director Rabbi Abraham Cooper reopening the Kadavumbagam Synagogue.