DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

Saying “we cannot be silent,” Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger joined Jewish leaders in taking part in a Day of Remembrance on April 28.

The day - called Yom HaShoah - is a yearly remembrance of the approximately six million Jewish people killed by the Nazis and took place on the future site of the Capital District Jewish Holocaust Memorial off Troy Schenectady Road in Niskayuna. Bishop Scharfenberger and the Albany Diocese donated the nearly two acres of land for the project, which has been the vision of Dr. Michael Lozman.

“This is a historic moment to be here on this property that will become the Capital District Jewish Holocaust Memorial,” said Lozman, who is president and founder of the memorial. “Today is called Yom HaShoah, a day set aside to remember those six million Jews who were systematically killed during a period of insanity and intense anti-Semitism. A period dedicated to hatred, led by a madman, and supported by all too many collaborators. 

“It is impossible to fathom such numbers, numbers like this one cannot easily relate to. But they are as real as your next-door neighbor taken out of his house and hung on the nearest tree just because he is a Jew. This also happened. We are here today to honor those Jews. Those Jews that were killed, we must remember them.”

Joining Lozman and Bishop Scharfenberger in a cleared area that was surrounded by tall trees just off the busy highway were Rabbi Rafi Spitzer of Congregation Agudat Achim in Niskayuna who spoke and led those gathered in prayer; Holocaust survivor Zsuzsanna Ozsváth, who briefly talked about her experiences during World War II; Dr. Rabbi Paul Silton, rabbi emeritus of Temple Israel, who added, “the obligation of remembrance is incumbent not only on Jews but humanity as well;” and Niskayuna Supervisor Jaime Puccioni. Six candles were lit on the blustery day to remember those killed while poems and the names of victims were read.

Bishop Scharfenberger, who is a consultant to the Bishop’s Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and a consultant to the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, added that “we must tell this story and particularly to our young people, to our children.”

“We hear horrifyingly how many people are unaware of what happened 50, 60, 70, 80 years ago. Even beyond the Shoah that we are commemorating here today is part of a pattern that has occurred throughout the course of history in which there has been hatred and prejudice against the Jewish people and we see anti-Semitism rising again and again,” the Bishop said.

According to a report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that was released on April 26, more anti-Semitic acts (2,717 incidents) were committed in the United States that ever before in 2021. Those acts, which included assault, harassment and vandalism, have been compiled by the ADL every year since 1979. 

“It continues, but we will not give up,” Bishop Scharfenberger said. “We will not give up hope. We will not close our eyes. We will remember and this is a sign that us being together, that we will continue to bear that flame. Yes, the wind can blow away little candles, but it will not blow away the flame in our hearts. The flame of our hope, that flame of our belief that God is with us and that we bear God’s presence where we go.”

In August 2020, Bishop Scharfenberger, through Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery in Niskayuna, signed over the land deed to Lozman in a ceremony at the Pastoral Center in Albany. The memorial — expected to be built in 2023 — will consist of walls arranged in the shape of the Star of David, and visitors will be guided into the interior space that is enclosed by six leaning towers centered on a pedestal containing representations of the personal objects that remained after the millions were killed The space is designed for contemplation and visitors will leave through a gate containing the message “Never Again.”

“On this ground will be built a memorial that will preserve that memory. But the memorial will do more; it will also focus on education,” Lozman said. “School children will make trips here; lectures, religious services, educational programs will take place at this memorial because we also have the responsibility to repair the world and education is our weapon to fight ignorance and prejudice.  

“We must also accept for this to be meaningful, our remembering must lead to action. To cause change we must speak out. We must leave our comfort zone so that the word inscribed on the gate as you leave the memorial - Never Again - is not a slogan but a call to arms. A call for peace and tolerance. A call to stand up against prejudice, hatred and bigotry and the scourge of anti-Semitism around the world.”