On Tuesday, March 18, at 7 p.m. at Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck, the Northern New Jersey Holocaust Memorial & Education Center will preview the newly designed, fully interactive future Holocaust Memorial & Education Center, to be built on the Teaneck Municipal Green, and screen the acclaimed Holocaust movie, “Bardejov.”
The memorial will consist of seven columns and a few benches for visitors to sit and hear lectures, conduct discussions or sit and reflect. There will be a centerpiece column depicting the murder of the six million Jews. One side of each of the six adjacent columns will have a representation of a major stage of the Holocaust. Visitors will need to download the memorial’s app to access the fully interactive components of the memorial. Once downloaded, the visitor can point their phone to the column and will be connected to links with videos, pictures and a plethora of information about the time period specified on that column.
The other side of the columns will be engraved with the name and place of origin of Holocaust victims and survivors provided by the northern New Jersey community. Individuals, synagogues, schools and businesses can make a dedication in honor of a victim and/or survivor of the Holocaust, including both individuals and couples. In addition to a name and place of the origin, the dedicator is asked to provide the memorial with a photo of the person and a few paragraphs telling that person’s story.
For an additional cost, a dedicator can also provide a 60-90 second video that the dedicator recorded discussing the Holocaust survivor or victim, or a video of the Holocaust survivor’s testimony. Additionallyw, a rabbi of a synagogue, a school principal or the owner of the business can create a video either discussing the Holocaust survivors in their community or the Holocaust education offered by their institution. By using the app, visitors can point their phone to a name engraved on the column and will be provided with links with that survivor or victim’s picture, story and video, and if they point their phone to the synagogue, school or business’s name, they will be provided with the video recorded by that institution.
According to Steve Fox, co-chair of the Northern New Jersey Holocaust Memorial & Education Center and president of Jewish Community Council for Greater Teaneck, “There is no other place in the world where people can dedicate a space to a person and it is interactive.”
At the event, the Northern New Jersey Holocaust Memorial & Education Center will be fundraising for donations and dedications. An individual dedication that includes the survivor and/or victim’s photo and a few paragraphs about his or her life is $500. To include a video in one’s dedication is $1,000. A synagogue or school donation is $2,500 and a business donation is $1,000. If a donor would like to provide a larger donation, they will be granted a large space on the dedication wall.
Fox emphasized that although located in Teaneck, the Memorial & Education Center aims to educate all individuals in the northern New Jersey area about the Holocaust. “A survey from Holocaust museums around the county said 75% of visitors to Holocaust museums are not Jewish. We want to make this a place where schools, churches and synagogues come to learn about the Holocaust and the lessons we can take from the Holocaust. The more people understand about the Holocaust, the more they will understand about the consequences of fascism, racism and the importance of tolerance.”
Following the preview of the future Memorial & Education Center, “Bardejov” will be screened. The movie, released in 2024, tells the story of the extraordinary efforts by members of the Slovakian town of Bardejov to try to save hundreds of Jewish girls from being sent to Auschwitz. The film highlights the courage and sacrifice of the Bardejov Jewish community under life-threatening circumstances.
The movie was produced by Emil Fish, a Holocaust survivor from the town of Bardejov. Fish is the founder of the Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Yeshiva University. In 2006, Fish founded the Bardejov Jewish Preservation Committee. In 2009, he was appointed by President Obama to the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. Fish will be at the event and will answer questions about his hometown following the movie.
Admission is free, but registration for the event is requested. To register for the event or to make a donation or dedication, visit www.nnjholocaustmemorial.org.
