Lest she forget, the tattooed A-11150 on Frances Simon's left arm reminds her of the hardships she endured as a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz, Ravensbruck and Malchov.
Lest others forget, she has often taken friends and relatives around the corner to the Museum of Tolerance, which challenges visitors to confront bigotry and to comprehend the Holocaust.
What she can't abide, however, is the museum's plan to dramatically extend its hours and replace a Holocaust memorial garden with multistory reception and banquet space that could accommodate hundreds of guests until as late as midnight six nights a week.
"The traffic, noise and music would disrupt the neighborhood," said Simon, 83. "It's like dancing on the dead people's memory."
Despite such criticism, the project has support from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, local rabbis, many residents and Councilman Jack Weiss, whose district includes the Pico Boulevard institution. But long-running disputes over the museum's operations, coupled with concerns about the expansion, have pitted neighbors -- many of them Jewish -- against Rabbi Marvin Hier.
Tagged last year by Newsweek magazine as the most influential rabbi in America, Hier is founder and dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, named for the famed Nazi hunter. The museum is the center's educational arm, each year welcoming more than 300,000 visitors.
Hier wields considerable political power, counting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger among his friends and donors.
Opponents contend that Hier is pushing hard to propel the project through the city approval process before Weiss leaves the council in June.
"The [center] is making a desperate grab to railroad this project through the planning process," said Susan Gans, an entertainment lawyer who has led the opposition.
Susan Burden, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief administrative and chief financial officer, countered that the museum has always had a much broader mission than teaching about the Holocaust.
"The museum's real purpose is to challenge visitors to stand up to hatred," she said. The museum features exhibits about slavery, bullying and genocide.
"We're bursting at the seams," she said. "We've had to turn people away because we didn't have the space."
The expansion would allow the building to accommodate as many as 800, well above current levels. (The museum initially hoped to accommodate 1,200 guests at a time, but Burden said it reduced the number after neighbors complained.)
