A coalition calling itself the No Tolerance for Genocide Committee gathered outside the Museum of Tolerance on West Pico Boulevard this week, demanding the Los Angeles institution add exhibits and educational programming addressing the treatment of Palestinians. The group says its protest came only after two letters to the museum's parent organization went unanswered for months.
The committee first wrote to the Simon Wiesenthal Center's board on July 22, then sent the letter again on August 17 after hearing nothing back, according to urgentmatter.press. The Museum of Tolerance is the educational arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization that opened the museum in 1993, the outlet reports. Separately, Knock LA reported that the demonstration unfolded outside the museum, which sits in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood.
A Years-Long Pattern of Friction at the Museum
This is not the first time the museum has faced public pressure over what its exhibitions choose to address. In 2003, Armenian-American college students staged a six-day hunger strike in front of the museum after it left the Armenian genocide out of its permanent exhibition, according to a historical account from F Newsmagazine. That dispute, the outlet notes, marked an earlier instance of the museum coming under fire from a community that felt its history had been excluded.
More recently, in November 2023, a private screening of footage from the Hamas attacks of October 7 drew roughly 50 protesters to the museum, with pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups separated by Los Angeles Police Department officers after shouting matches broke out, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. That night turned physical after the screening ended, with pepper spray and punches reported and at least one person detained by police, the Times reported in a separate story. Outlets differed on the runtime of the film shown that evening — the Times described it as 47 minutes, while the Deseret News reported it as 43 minutes of footage assembled by the Israeli Defense Forces.
What the Protesters Are Asking For
According to the same urgentmatter.press report, the museum describes its mission as using the lessons of the Holocaust to build tolerance and help people better understand the world, a framing laid out on the Museum of Tolerance's own site. The No Tolerance for Genocide Committee's letters sought a meeting to discuss whether that mission should extend to exhibits and lessons on Palestinians, per the same account.
The protest also arrives against a broader financial backdrop. A California Senate budget document cited by the outlet shows the museum received $10 million in state funding in 2021-22, $5 million in 2022-23, $2.1 million in 2023-24, and $2 million in 2024-25, with Gov. Gavin Newsom's 2025-26 budget proposing another $10 million allocation.
International Findings on Gaza Cited by Organizers
International Findings on Gaza Cited by Organizers A United Nations commission of inquiry concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza — a finding Israel's government has rejected, per the report. The committee has sought exhibits and lessons on Palestinians at the museum, which is built around Holocaust education.
The dossier underlying this account does not independently verify separate allegations, reported elsewhere, about harassment, police conduct, or the museum's response to the demonstration, and those claims are not restated here. California law does address public demonstrations in general terms: Penal Code section 647c makes it a misdemeanor to willfully and maliciously obstruct another person's free movement on a street, sidewalk, or public place, while Penal Code section 415 describes certain disorderly conduct as punishable by up to 90 days in county jail, a fine of up to $400, or both, according to California Legislative Information. Nothing in the available record establishes that anyone at this particular demonstration violated either statute.
