Holocaust Museum LA has apologized and deleted a social media post that drew heavy criticism for universalizing the Holocaust, acknowledging the campaign was “poorly conceived” and “open to misinterpretation” amid the ongoing war in the Middle East.

The now-removed post read: “‘Never again’ can’t only mean never again for Jews.” It was part of what the museum described as a “pre-planned social media campaign intended to promote inclusivity and community.”

But critics blasted the message as watering down the specific history of the Holocaust. Others accused the museum of issuing what amounted to a political statement at a time when Jewish institutions are facing growing hostility and heightened scrutiny over Israel’s war with Hamas.

“That was not our intent,” the museum said in a statement after deleting the post. “It has been removed to avoid any further confusion. We promise to do better, and we will ensure that posts in the future are more thoughtfully designed and thoroughly vetted.”

The controversy has reignited a long-running debate within the Jewish world: whether the Holocaust should be taught as a universal lesson about intolerance, or primarily as a warning about the dangers of antisemitism.

“Holocaust museums, many of which have decried claims that Israel is guilty of ‘genocide,’ have been criticized for universalizing the Holocaust,” said Dr. Walter Reich, former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, in a 2016 essay for Mosaic.

“The urge to ‘universalize’—that is, to hitch Jewish experience to the wagon of tikkun olam, or healing the world, is a glaring reality in Jewish museums generally and in museums on the Holocaust in particular,” Reich wrote. “But intolerance isn’t what animated Hitler to murder the Jews. What animated him was a vicious form of antisemitism.”

The deleted post has fueled wider concerns about how Jewish institutions navigate today’s political climate, with many Jewish leaders warning against attempts to dilute the Holocaust’s meaning at a time of rising antisemitism worldwide.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)