A Legacy Of Love: The Five Towns Holocaust Memorial Honors Those We Lost
Wall of Tears
At a time when antisemitism is on the rise on campuses, social media, and across the world, a work of remembrance has become more urgent than ever. The Holocaust—once understood as one of history’s clearest warnings about the consequences of unchecked hatred—is fading from memory. Survivors are aging. Firsthand testimony is becoming rarer. Historical knowledge, which should deepen with each generation, is in many cases thinning.
That is why the planned Five Towns Holocaust Memorial in Andrew J. Parise Park matters so much. A project of the Wall of Tears Foundation, the memorial is envisioned not just as a monument to the six million Jews who were murdered, but as a sacred place of memory, education, conscience, and communal responsibility. It will stand in the heart of the Five Towns, making remembrance a part of everyday civic life rather than something distant, occasional, or confined to textbooks and museums.
The significance of that location cannot be overstated. Cedarhurst Park is not an isolated place; it is a living center of community life, a place where residents gather in moments of joy, reflection, grief, and solidarity. To build a Holocaust memorial there is to say that memory belongs not at the margins, but at the very center. It also affirms that the lessons of the Holocaust must remain present in the daily landscape of Jewish life.
The proposed memorial is also distinctive in design and concept. Unlike a monument that relies on abstract design alone, the Wall of Tears tells a story. At its center is a map of Europe showing the Jewish population of each country before and after the Holocaust. Across that map, plaques present images and stories tied to specific places, tracing the destruction of communities country by country. These plaques do not reduce the Holocaust to statistics. They restore memory by revealing that behind every number stood families, towns, synagogues, schools, lives, and people.
The memorial’s visual language is particularly powerful. An eternal flame crowns the structure, symbolizing both mourning and endurance. Behind the plaques, tears appear to drip into a Pool of Tears, creating a physical and emotional current that draws the viewer inward. In this way, the monument is designed not merely to be observed, but to be experienced. It invites reflection through movement, image, and human scale. It asks visitors not simply to look, but to pause.
Its three dozen engraved plaques will feature photographs and concise text describing deportation sites, extermination centers, concentration camps, massacres, expulsions, transports, and enslavement across Europe. The material draws from the archives of Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and tens of thousands of images and studies gathered from libraries around the world. That foundation gives the project both emotional force and historical integrity. It is commemorative, but it is also educational.
Importantly, the memorial does not tell only one kind of story. Some plaques will bear witness to murder, while others will show Jews being driven from their homes, humiliated, dispossessed, and forced into impossible conditions long before death camps completed the machinery of genocide. Some will portray deportation and transport. Others will reflect forced labor and enslavement that cost tens of thousands of lives. Together, these panels present the Holocaust not as a single event, but as a systematic unraveling of society, morality, and human dignity.
The side panels extend that message into the present. They address antisemitism, discrimination, and the broader conditions that allow hatred to harden into policy and violence. This is one of the memorial’s most important educational contributions. It does not isolate the Holocaust in the past. It asks viewers to understand how prejudice grows, how indifference enables cruelty, and how societies fail when bystanders choose silence over courage.
That theme resonates strongly today. In an era when antisemitic incidents are rising and historical ignorance is increasing, schools must do more than transmit facts. They must form moral imagination. They must help young people recognize warning signs, understand the human cost of dehumanization, and see themselves as responsible actors in the face of injustice. The Five Towns Holocaust Memorial aims to do exactly that.
Supporters of the project have spoken movingly about its purpose. Assemblyman Ari Brown, the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors, has described the memorial as carrying profound personal meaning. He reflected on his own family history, noting that his mother and grandmother were among the 1,000 refugees brought from Italy to the Fort Ontario State Historic Site during the war through the extraordinary effort authorized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and carried forward through the work of Ruth Gruber under the direction of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Brown also underscored why Cedarhurst Park is such an appropriate home for this monument. Having been involved in the development of what is now Andrew J. Parise Park over the past 28 years, he has seen it become a place where the community gathers in moments of celebration, reflection, and sorrow. For that reason, he claims it is especially fitting that the Wall of Tears Holocaust Memorial will stand in the heart of Cedarhurst at the center of the Five Towns, an important anchor for the South Shore of Nassau County. His words capture the spirit of the project when he says that remembrance is not only an act of history, but a sacred responsibility entrusted to every generation.
That responsibility has also been recognized by leaders in Holocaust education and anti-hate advocacy. Scott Richman, Regional Director of ADL New York/New Jersey, endorsed the effort as a bold initiative at a moment when standing up against the tide of antisemitism requires new energy, public clarity, and a stronger culture of understanding and respect. His support reflects the memorial’s contemporary relevance. This is not simply about honoring the dead, according to Richman, although that alone would be reason enough. It is also about strengthening the moral and educational defenses of the living.
The memorial’s educational value has drawn praise as well. Matt Lebovic, Director of the Holocaust Education Center at StandWithUs, noted how compellingly the project blends the stories of victims with the conduct of bystanders in each country. That approach is critical. If education focuses only on perpetrators and victims, it can leave students feeling as if history belongs to other people. But when it examines bystanders—those who looked away, rationalized, complied, or did nothing—it raises urgent questions about the choices ordinary individuals make. Lebovic also highlighted the memorial’s use of QR codes, which can help students engage with the material in a self-directed way without becoming overwhelmed. In a world of distracted attention, that feature may prove effective in helping young visitors connect more deeply with the memorial’s lessons.
Even voices from the armed forces have recognized the enduring moral force of Holocaust memory. Military Cadet Regina Woronowicz has spoken of how confronting the Holocaust strengthens her resolve to fight hatred, racism, and injustice, and deepens her understanding of responsibility as a future officer. Her reflection points to one of the Holocaust’s lasting lessons: memory is not only retrospective. It shapes character. It influences how future leaders understand duty, ethics, and the consequences of moral failure.
The Five Towns Holocaust Memorial therefore promises to be more than an object of mourning. It will be a teaching space, a gathering place, and a visible declaration that the Five Towns refuses to let memory recede. For local families, it will provide a place to bring children and grandchildren, to have difficult conversations, to answer questions, and to honor those who were annihilated simply because they were Jews. For students, it can become an entry point into deeper learning. For visitors, it can serve as a reminder that civilization is fragile when truth is neglected and hatred is normalized.
The project also requires communal commitment. Of the $350,000 needed to bring the memorial to fruition, $50,000 has been raised so far. That progress is meaningful, but much more support is needed. Every contribution matters because every contribution helps transform intention into permanence. Donors of $2,500 and above will have their name or dedication engraved on the monument, linking acts of generosity to a legacy of remembrance for the future.
Yet the deepest value of supporting this memorial goes beyond recognition. To help build it is to take part in an act of moral continuity. It is to insist that memory must be housed somewhere real, somewhere public, somewhere accessible for the next generation. It is to answer indifference with testimony, erasure with visibility, and hatred with a sacred commitment to truth.
There are moments in life when a project becomes larger than itself. The Five Towns Holocaust Memorial is one of those moments. It emerges at a time when the world needs places that do not merely commemorate tragedy, but teach vigilance. It offers beauty without sentimentality, education without abstraction, and grief without forgetfulness. Most of all, it offers a way for a community to say: We remember, we honor, and we will not allow the story of those we lost to disappear.
In Cedarhurst, our legacy of love is waiting to be built. Please join us.
Donations of any size are welcome. Donations can be made directly through the Wall of Tears Foundation website. Please visit https://www.walloftears.org/5-towns-holocaust-project.html.
Rochelle Maruch Miller is a contributing editor for the Five Towns Jewish Times. She is a journalist, creative media strategist, lecturer, educator, and writes for magazines, newspapers, websites, and private clients. She welcomes your comments at [email protected]. Read more of Rochelle Maruch Miller’s articles at 5TJT.com.
