From 1997 until 2019, the museum had a Core Exhibition which told the story of 20th and 21st century Jewish life from the perspective of those who lived it. Through a rotating collection that included artifacts, photographs, and documentary films, the Core Exhibition placed the Holocaust in the larger context of modern Jewish history. It was organized into three chronological sections: "Jewish Life A Century Ago", "The War Against the Jews", and "Jewish Renewal" — each told on a separate floor. It was housed in the museum's six-sided building, symbolic of the six points of the Star of David and the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.