Submitted by JCGC
A local group is working to honor those who escaped the horrors of the Holocaust and found their final resting place in a Cincinnati Jewish cemetery.
Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati recently designed and created a marker to be placed by the graveside of any survivor who was a victim of Nazi persecution between 1933 and 1945.
The project got its start nearly four years ago when a Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati (JCGC) strategic planning review started to brainstorm new project ideas. JCGC had just embarked on a project to honor U.S. military veterans by placing a marker by all their gravesites. It was warmly received by the community. An idea sprung up to honor Holocaust survivors similarly.
The Survivor Marker Committee was established. The committee, which includes Alan Brown, Henry Fenichel, Sandy Kaltman, Sarah Schneider, Gail Ziegler, and chairman Ray Warren, researched the idea and determined there was nothing like this available in the world. While there was a bronze plaque to recognize survivors that was created by the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, the plaque (no longer available) required attachment to the gravestone. Because JCGC cannot deface any of the headstones in its cemeteries, the committee went about designing its own freestanding marker.
The design was led by Brown, a graphic artist and former president of the JCGC board. “The final design incorporates several motifs of survivors’ lives, including a barbed wire symbolizing persecution, the hope of a better future with olive branches, the centrality of Judaism represented by a Magen David (Star of David), the Hebrew word “Zachor,” (“Remember”) for the need to remember and not to forget,” Brown said. While going through many design versions, the committee faced other challenges including creating “real” prototypes to see and feel the design and identifying cost-effective fabricators.
The last challenge was to identify an underwriter for the production of the marker and make it freely available to all Jews buried in the 25 Cincinnati area cemeteries managed by JCGC. The search was incorporated into the recent Capital Campaign of JCGC. To help with this effort, Survivor Committee member Kaltman and her husband John Isidor contributed a generous campaign gift. Kaltman and Isidor, for many years, have been engaged in and recognized for promoting Holocaust education in Cincinnati’s Jewish community. “This was a simple extension of our commitment to honor survivors and promote Holocaust education,” Kaltman said.
Once delivered from the fabricator, the markers will be placed in the ground by the graveside.
Those interested in honoring their loved one with a marker or wishing to request additional information may visit the JCGC website or call the JCGC office.
