Palisades Park – A town teaming with Korean Americans commemorates the Holocaust with an rich display recognizing the six million lives lost during Hitler’s terror reign throughout Europe. The Palisades Park Library taking some heat in recent months for being biased toward Christian ideals and all things Korean, has reached beyond it’s own cultural purview to recognize victims of the Holocaust with a rich display of pictures and books serving as a visual reminder that ‘We will never forget’.
Joy Kurland director of Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Federation for North Jersey stated, “We offered ourselves to this library as we do with other libraries, to be a resource, providing enhanced material to help educate and acknowledge the lives lost during the systematic murder of Jews by Hitler’s war machine.” The display is a step toward religious inclusion for the library and those it serves. It is both a memorial and a learning tool for the mostly Korean American populated city of Palisades Park to commemorate Holocaust Awareness Week from April 21 – 28.
“This initiative is designed to foster awareness and to be more inclusive and is part of a general outreach to all area libraries, however due to the concerns of a Jewish community member we met with the (Palisades Park) library board which we typically do not do but we found them to be agreeable,” said Kurland.
On March 7, Kurland along with Rabbi Neil Tov, of the Glenrock Jewish Center and Rabbi Paul Jacobson of Temple Avodat Shalom of Riveredge met with the board in an attempt to ensure they (the library) had the resources they needed to provide a robust educational service to library members. “Our discussion with the library was focused mostly on how they can be more inclusive. This is not just a Jewish issue. Any minority can have the same concerns about showing the value of depicting the various facets of their community by highlighting cultural triumphs and describing struggles,” said Kurland.
Photo Credit: Elyse Hansford
By Elyse Hansford
