Minns tours building site

NSW Premier Chris Minns paid a visit to the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) on Wednesday morning, where he was given a “hard-hat tour” of the new building site before speaking with Holocaust survivors.

Minns toured where the new learning studios and students’ entrance will be, both crucial to the museum’s aim of expanding its programs and educational reach from 30,000 to 55,000 school students a year. The NSW Government is a major partner in supporting the expansion after it committed $8.5 million to the project.

Minns was welcomed by SJM president Greg Shand and CEO Kevin Sumption, who expressed the museum’s gratitude for the NSW Government’s funding for the project and for the Premier’s continuing support of the museum’s educational aims.

The SJM currently delivers programs to more than 90 per cent of NSW high schools, all with the aim of teaching empathy, tolerance and increasing social cohesion through Holocaust education.

“The need to live the values of tolerance and understanding – and to challenge hatred – is more pressing than ever,” said Shand.

After touring the site with Shand, Sumption and team leaders from construction company Lipman, Minns met and spoke with Holocaust survivors Ernie Friedlander, Mimi Wise, Paul Drexler and Lucy Chladek, who shared their experiences of educating school children about the Holocaust.

Just before leaving, Minns surprised students from Gymea Technology High School who were being taken through an educational program featuring a digital hologram of the late Eddie Jaku. The Premier told the students about his own memorable visit to the museum when he was a student himself at Marist College in Kogarah and how it led him to tour Yad Vashem in Jerusalem a few years later.

The redevelopment of the SJM is expected to be completed in early 2027. It will see the museum’s existing Darlinghurst site expanded to include state-of-the-art tech-enabled galleries and educational spaces with the capacity to welcome 100,000 visitors per year.