Over a decade after 16-year-old Aryeh
Halberstam was gunned down on New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge, his mother Devorah took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the first night of Hanukah,
officially marking the opening the Jewish Children’s Museum on Tuesday. Islamic terrorists fired at a van
carrying Halberstam and other yeshiva students as they crossed the bridge.
According to Mrs. Halberstam, the continuation of life and building is the true response to terrorism. Officials explain the museum, located in the Crown Heights neighborhood of NYC will work to promote peace and
understand among all children.
Among the notables attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony was New York State Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
"This may be a building named in her son's memory, but the real work honoring him will be the day-to-day contact that this museum provides to all children everywhere,"
Clinton said.
Rabbi Yerachmiel Benjaminson, the museum's executive
director, said the museum's message of peace and understanding would counter hatred and anti-Semitism.
"The most important lesson is tolerance," Benjaminson
said. "When children find out about other cultures, it brings peace and harmony to this world. It all starts with the kids."
The 50,000 square-foot building, the result of 10 years of planning and construction, cost more than $30 million and features computer labs, a library, a movie theater, more than 80 different activities, and a community
center.
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