The $15 million donation to the Holocaust Memorial Center is the largest single charitable donation in its history and will be used to support the Farmington Hills Center and give it greater flexibility in the coming years.

Gifts from the Zekelman family and Zekelman Industries (Chicago-based Zekelman Industries is North America’s largest independent steel pipe manufacturer) will be used for the Holocaust Memorial Center’s $100 million comprehensive campaign. The five-year event will create an endowment fund designated by the board of directors. It will also fund plans to update the center's core exhibits. 

"We are very excited and grateful for the Zekelman family. This is really special," said Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld, CEO of the Holocaust Memorial Center. 

Located on the Zekelman Family Campus of the Holocaust Memorial Center on Orchard Lake Road, the 55,000-square-foot Holocaust Memorial Center is the only Holocaust museum in Michigan and the first independent institution of its kind in the United States. It serves approximately 100,000 visitors each year, whether in person or through online programming.

Mayerfeld said that Zekelmans was very thoughtful about how they wanted to use the $15 million gift. Since the March 2020 COVID attack, arts and cultural institutions have faced all the challenges, and the limited donations of the board of directors mean that these funds can be used when necessary, which is different from regular donations that cannot reach the principal.

Mayerfeld said: "In this situation (the pandemic), the board has the ability to make changes, which will have a huge impact on the future of the organization." "On the one hand, they said, "We hope that these dollars can be At the same time, they said that we hope that the board of directors can be flexible to realize that if something happens that requires immediate action, these funds can also be used for this purpose. So this is indeed a great gift and vision with a lot of creativity ."

Tuesday’s gift is not the first time that the Zekelman family and Zekelman Industries have supported the Holocaust Center. At the end of 2006, after the center built a new campus in Farmington Hill, it donated US$10 million to reduce its debt.

Zekelmans have a deep personal connection with the Holocaust.

"My late father's parents and siblings were unfortunately killed in the Holocaust, so it is very, very important for us to be able to do something not only to commemorate their lives, but to commemorate all other people-6 million Jews," Alan Zekeman said that the Bloomfield Hills resident is the treasurer of the memorial center board of directors, and his father survived because of being in the Polish army.

The Zekelmans gift was released a few days after the Holocaust Memorial Center, which has an annual budget of $4 million, received another grant from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation. According to a $100 million new art and culture plan announced last week, the Holocaust Center is one of the 11 Detroit metropolitan arts and cultural institutions in the Detroit metropolitan area and will receive annual operating expenses support. 

Zekeman said he hopes his family’s gifts will inspire others to give. He said that the mission and achievements of the center have grown, but there is more work to be done.

"It's really time to update the exhibition and expand its impact on Michigan teachers and students across the state," he said. "And they can only do this with more money. We want people to join us."