Letter to the Editor
We Need The Wall Of Tears Memorial
Dear Editor,
The recent letter calling the proposed “Wall of Tears” memorial in Cedarhurst Park a waste of money misses the mark.
While I believe the writer truly cares about the future of our community, the alternatives he suggests, like yeshiva scholarships, help for needy brides, and assistance for couples struggling to build a family are worthy causes that deserve support. But supporting those causes doesn’t mean we have to oppose a memorial. Charity isn’t a contest where one good cause has to lose so another can win. Our community has always found a way to multi-task tzedakah.
I would also like to respond personally to the assumption that those of us raised by Holocaust survivors already know everything about the Holocaust, and that a memorial therefore teaches no one. I am a first-generation American. My parents were Holocaust survivors, and in our home, they almost never spoke about what they went through. A lot of survivors carried those memories in silence because the pain was simply too much to put into words. So the idea that every child of a survivor grew up with the full story just isn’t true.
And even where that knowledge did get passed down to the children of survivors, think about the generations coming up now. The survivors themselves are almost all gone. Our grandchildren will never sit with someone who lived through it. What they end up knowing will be whatever we choose to preserve for them.
That is the point. It is exactly what this memorial is meant to do. It isn’t a passive slab of stone. It’s a teaching tool, a place where docents can walk schoolchildren and visitors through what actually happened. And it’s unlike anything I have seen. Set into its map of Europe are 40 small plaques with QR codes. Scan one with your phone and a two– to three-minute video tells you what happened in that specific place: the people who lived there, the events, and what became of that community. A child standing in front of it doesn’t just read a date on a wall. They watch the history of that spot come to life.
The writer worries that a monument will invite vandalism instead of understanding. I acknowledge that concern. But we can’t let the possibility of hatred decide what we are willing to build. A community that hides its own memory to avoid provoking antisemites has already given up something far more important than a line in a budget.
There’s something else, too. For me, and for many families here, this is a profoundly meaningful way to memorialize relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust and the survivors who are no longer with us. An everlasting monument gives them a permanent place in our community’s memory, long after the rest of us are gone. Let’s build it for their sake and ours.
Sincerely,
Benjamin Weinstock
Mayor of Cedarhurst
The Wall of Tears Serves an Important Purpose
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the letter published in the June 12 edition of the Five Towns Jewish Timesquestioning the necessity and constructive value of the proposed Five Towns Wall of Tears Memorial in Andrew J. Parise Cedarhurst Park.
Reasonable people may differ over how best to commemorate the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. But dismissing the Wall of Tears as unnecessary overlooks both its purpose and the urgent need it is intended to address.
The Wall of Tears is not merely another monument in a community familiar with Holocaust history. It is intended to be the first of many memorials placed not only in established Jewish communities, but also in communities with small Jewish populations and on college campuses, where Holocaust education and a visible warning about antisemitism are urgently needed.
In recent years, Jewish students have faced hostility, intimidation, exclusion, and the distortion or denial of Jewish history. Antisemites have become sophisticated in how they package their message, using social media, slogans, misleading narratives, and propaganda to reach young and impressionable audiences.
The Wall of Tears seeks to reach that audience before it falls prey to hatred and deception. It will provide a permanent testament to the Holocaust not as an abstract event, but as the systematic murder of individual human beings. Every victim had a name, a family, a community, a future, and a life that was violently taken away.
Some have suggested that a visible Jewish memorial may invite vandalism or further antisemitism. That fear cannot determine whether Jewish history is publicly remembered. Inculcating Jews with fear is precisely one objective of antisemites. They want Jews hesitant to speak, reluctant to identify themselves publicly, and afraid to preserve the memory of their own people.
History has taught us that cowering in the face of hatred is not the answer. Silence does not placate those committed to antisemitism. Removing Jewish symbols from public view does not eliminate prejudice; it merely gives hatred greater influence over our public spaces and collective memory.
The proper response to those who might deface a Holocaust memorial is not to abandon it. It is to build it, protect it, educate through it, and demonstrate that neither intimidation nor hatred will erase the memory of the six million.
Antisemitism does not threaten only one segment of the Jewish community. It does not distinguish between observant and secular Jews, between the affiliated and unaffiliated, or between Jews of different political, cultural, or religious outlooks. It targets Jews because they are Jews.
Those who question the constructive value of the Wall of Tears should consider what it will mean to the children and grandchildren of Holocaust victims. Millions were denied even the basic dignity of an individual burial. Entire families disappeared. Communities that had existed for generations were destroyed. In many cases, no photograph, possession, grave, or marker remains.
For descendants, the inscription of a victim’s name is not an empty gesture. It restores a measure of individuality and dignity to a human being whom the Nazis attempted to reduce to a number, an anonymous body, or a forgotten statistic.
Can a memorial that gives a name back to someone whom history’s greatest murderers attempted to erase honestly be described as non-constructive?
We are also entering a consequential period in Holocaust remembrance. The generation of survivors who could enter classrooms, describe their experiences, and answer questions firsthand is rapidly diminishing. Future generations will encounter the Holocaust primarily through books, recordings, museums, memorials, and educational programs.
The Wall of Tears is intended to serve that purpose. It will be an interactive and engaging educational tool as well as a permanent memorial. It will confront distortion with documented truth, make the consequences of hatred tangible, and remind visitors that the Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers. It began with words, lies, stereotypes, exclusion, dehumanization, public indifference, and the normalization of hatred.
Young people must learn not only what occurred, but how an advanced society descended into organized mass murder. They must recognize the warning signs that precede violence and understand the responsibility of individuals and institutions to oppose hatred before it becomes culturally acceptable.
No single memorial, curriculum, speech, or organization can defeat antisemitism. But the Wall of Tears can become a powerful part of a broader educational and moral effort. It can preserve names that might otherwise be forgotten, honor families denied a grave, teach those who know little about the Holocaust, challenge those who have absorbed falsehoods, and give courage to those afraid to speak.
The question should not be whether we already possess enough memorials. The question should be whether we have done enough to ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust reach those who most need to learn them.
At a time when historical memory is fading, misinformation is flourishing, and antisemitism is again becoming visible and socially acceptable in certain circles, the answer is clear. We have not done enough.
The Wall of Tears is therefore not simply a monument to the past. It is an educational investment in the future, a warning against indifference, and a declaration that the victims of the Holocaust will not be forgotten. We owe that resolve to the six million precious souls who perished, to the dwindling number of survivors who entrusted us with their testimony, to their descendants, and to future generations, Jewish and non-Jewish alike.
Sincerely,
Norm Kaish
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
The Wall of Tears Foundation
Dear Editor,
I try to learn nightly and one of the subjects I touch upon is shmiras anayim, which is that we have to watch what we see just as we watch what we eat. We are heading into the summer months and should take the extra step. Charitable events should have separate seating, as how does it look in the heavens when on one hand we contribute to the best charities available and then are involved with what we should not be at the same time. It’s a simple task of a mechitza that keeps the focus on the mitzvah. A small contribution the organizations and the rabbis in the community can insist on at the next event.
Reuven Guttman
Lawrence, NY
