Bishop Scharfenberger to hand over land for Holocaust memorial

The Diocese of Albany and Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery will formally gift a two-acre parcel of property for the future Holocaust Memorial in Niskayuna to Dr. Michael Lozman, as President of the Capital District Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Inc., on Thursday, Aug. 20, at 12:30 p.m., at the Pastoral Center in Albany.

“I want to thank Dr. Lozman for coming to me with this project and for allowing the Diocese of Albany to partner with him in making his dream a reality,” said Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger , who will formally hand over the land. “From the outset, I recognized the power and potential of his plan for a local Holocaust Memorial. It will not only provide a sacred space to remember the millions of Jewish lives lost in the Holocaust but will also provide a place and platform for educating future generations so that the evils of that particular moment in history are never repeated.”

The memorial will be built on land once-owned by the Diocese of Albany that is next to Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery in Niskayuna on Route 7. The memorial, which was first proposed by Lozman in 2017, had been the subject of numerous forums and public hearings as well as a major design change, got final approval from the Niskayuna Planning Board in February.

Bishop Scharfenberger, whose maternal grandmother was Jewish, was named as a consultor to the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews in July of 2019. Bishop Scharfenberger was the only U.S. consultor appointed to the commission.