Photo by Erin Nelson.
Birmingham Holocaust Education Center
The Rev. Melissa Self Patrick, executive director of the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center, at the office on Arlington Avenue on Dec. 2.
The Birmingham Holocaust Education Center, founded in 2002, seeks to helps the people of Alabama learn more about the history and lessons of the Holocaust.
In November, the BHEC announced the hiring of a new executive director, the Rev. Melissa Self Patrick, to help continue this mission.
An Alabama native, Patrick has worked in the Birmingham nonprofit community for about 30 years. Her experience includes stints as executive director of Urban Ministry and Youth Leadership Forum of Birmingham and development director for Greater Birmingham Ministries.
“She has been an outstanding leader in every position she has held and is a champion for social justice in this community,” BHEC board President Andy Campbell said.
“Our mission to educate people about the history of the Holocaust so that new generations will apply the lessons of the Holocaust to the construction of a more humane, just and tolerant future resonates deeply with me and my lifelong work,” Patrick told Iron City Ink.
The work of the BHEC “is invaluable and vitally important,” Patrick said.
“Holocaust survivors are diminishing in numbers, even as anti-Semitism is on the rise across our region and country,” she said. “Their stories are profound, and our community needs to hear them. To the extent people of all ages can be in the room listening to a Holocaust survivor share his or her story is incredibly powerful and more important than ever.”
In addition, the BHEC has archives, art exhibits and hundreds of hours of survivor testimony that “are unique and unlike any other because they are of our Birmingham and Alabama residents,” Patrick said.
An elder in the United Methodist Church, Patrick has a B.A. in history from Birmingham-Southern College and an MDiv from Emory University.
Patrick looks forward to “growing” the BHEC educational programs and building more partnerships with other organizations, such as the Jefferson County Memorial Project.
The BHEC is also on the verge of a move. The organization has been located in the Bayer Properties building on Arlington Avenue for more than 15 years, but the owners are closing for renovations. At press time, the BHEC was planning to announce a new, temporary home.
However, the BHEC is “excited about beginning to strategize to determine our future office, exhibit and educational learning space needs as we look for a permanent home in Birmingham,” Patrick said.
For more about the BHEC, call 205-795- 4176 or go to bhecinfo.org.
