Holocaust sculpture dedicated at West Orange synagogue

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

Doves of peace are forever taking flight from a pile of bones in a sculpture in front of Ahawas Achim B’nai Jacob and David in West Orange.

The sculpture, Take Off, by Ana Lazowsky, is part of a new Holocaust Memorial Garden that was dedicated Sept. 17.

The dedication ceremony included remarks from congregant Fran Gruber, a survivor who told the miraculous story of her family’s survival, and comments from West Orange Mayor John McKeon and the synagogue’s Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler.

Jacob Koltun, a congregant and Holocaust survivor, chanted “Where is God in Vilna” in Yiddish.

The project was spearheaded by congregant Robert Benrimon. “This is a physical reminder of the Holocaust,” he said just before the dedication ceremony. “Every time people come to shul, they shouldn’t forget what happened.”

Master of ceremonies Marv Lipsky, chair of the AABJD Yom Hashoa program, called the memorial garden “long in coming and long overdue.”

Zwickler said it provided “an opportunity to sit back and contemplate what was lost.” He also said of the community, “We are what they died for. They came from the graveyard and had nothing. Look what they built.”

Gruber offered the most poignant remarks, as she described a toddler’s journey — her own — whose details she only partly remembers. Born in Poland, she was two years old when she was marched with her parents and older sister into the Vilna Ghetto.

“There were 80,000 people marched into the ghetto. Only three complete families survived. The survival of complete Jewish families is almost unheard of,” she said. “My survival is due to the courageous actions of my father and my mother. They were united in one aim: to save their children.”

Gruber described the places they hid — in bunkers where her “friends were mice,” in forests, in people’s homes, in horse-drawn carriages covered with blankets.

That all ended when “we heard shooting and noise. The Russians had landed. We were free. I am considered a miracle baby to have survived.”

The five-foot sculpture, made of cast bronze, stands on a five-foot-high pedestal. It portrays the journey from death to freedom. Seven birds symbolize the seven days of creation. In addition to the sculpture itself, the garden includes six pillars representing the six million Jews who perished and four benches for contemplation and reflection.

The Holocaust Memorial Garden is the third phase of an overall campaign at the synagogue focused on the Shoa that began two years ago with a dinner honoring the synagogue’s 25 members who are survivors.

Last winter, the synagogue dedicated a Holocaust Torah from what was formerly Czechoslovakia that had been restored to kosher status. Along with the sculpture garden, funds have also been raised to cover the expenses for two young congregation members to participate in the March of the Living Holocaust awareness program each year.