Some big changes, in the form of construction, expansion, temporary closure and a satellite site, are coming to the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie.
Bernard Cherkasov, the museum’s CEO, announced the Skokie museum will temporarily close in July for construction work to expand the museum and add an auditorium and other features. A satellite location in downtown Chicago will display some popular exhibits.
To facilitate the construction process, the museum announced the Skokie building will be closed for about a year during construction, starting in July. There will be a partial reopening of the museum in January 2026 and a full reopening at the end of summer in 2026.
“We’re doing quite a big renovation,” said CEO Bernard Cherkasov. “We are expanding our visitor welcome center. We’re building new bathrooms. We’re building a brand-new, state-of-the-art auditorium. We are adding spaces for reflection.”
The decision was made to close the museum during the renovation because, “Some of this is going to be loud, dusty, disruptive work,” Cherkasov said. “We felt that to continue to provide a world-class experience for our visitors, it is easier to shut down the museum for a short period of time.”
Cherkasov noted that a large welcome center is needed because of how much attendance has increased at the museum. He reported that in the past two years, the museum has beat its single day visitation record five times. The welcome center will allow room for visitors to purchase tickets or wait to have their questions answered.
That increased attendance also means that additional bathrooms are necessary.
Cherkasov said the museum doesn’t yet know the cost details of the expansion and construction project because they haven’t gotten the construction bids yet. Once they have created a complete budget, they will share it and report how the expenses will be paid, he said.
The museum will open a temporary downtown Chicago satellite location in July for about a year, at the former site of the Broadcast Museum.
“This year we mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust and the end of World War II,” Cherkasov said. “It feels like the world that we live in needs the lessons from the Holocaust now more urgently than ever before. To be able to open a satellite downtown where we can reach new audiences who haven’t been able to come see our contents in Skokie sounds like an amazing opportunity for us.”
Visitors to the satellite location will see Holocaust survivor holography, virtual reality films, and stories of survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides, “showing our shared humanity,”
Cherkasov said.
The Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois was started by Holocaust survivors in 1981. It later became the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
