-Susan Hetsroni, TBA Immediate Past President
Great stories are ones with universal truths unpacked through challenges and triumphs. They portray individual empowerment and inspire our own actions - to have a lasting impact far into the future and greater than ourselves.
These elements are woven into the story of the Holocaust Memorial Wall at Temple Beth Am, its preservation and its legacy.
Temple Beth Am back in the 1960s was planted on La Cienega Boulevard in the center of modern Jewish Life in Los Angeles, with Rabbi Jacob Pressman as its standard-bearing leader. A master of so many things, Rabbi Pressman, along with a cadre of powerful lay leaders created the first-of-its kind Holocaust Memorial inside the former sanctuary at Temple Beth Am. It may have been the only monument of its kind inside a sanctuary space.
Many of the lay leaders of the time were accomplished businessmen, many of whom were survivors of the horrors of Germany’s concentration camps in Poland. Their stories of survival were legendary, as are most stories of survival. And their triumphs included establishing themselves anew and fueling an expansive Jewish life on American soil. They created for themselves great success and became industrious inventors, manufacturers, builders of California, builders of Israel, and supporters of Temple Beth Am and Rabbi Jacob Pressman. A powerful combination. Chief among them was Nathan Shapell z”l, TBA President at the time, who served as Chair of the Memorial Wall project.
The massive Holocaust Memorial Wall was brought to life by artist Perli Pelzig whose evocative creation intended to echo the Western Wall in Jerusalem, with the names of Concentration Camps carved into the stones as if by perishing souls. The wall was of monumental scale and haunting intention. It was a powerful backdrop to Jewish life renewed and revived. A larger than life testament to memory and survival. At the time of its dedication in 1966, Rabbi Pressman reached out to world leaders to participate in the dedication itself. In the Temple Beth Am archives there are impressive responses: from President Harry S. Truman, Rev. Martin Luther King, and a handwritten note from Israel’s Prime Minster at the time David Ben Gurion. (A copy of this letter is now held at the David Ben Gurion Museum in Israel). The Dedication of this memorial, chaired by Edward Colman, Al Berg and Eli Rembaum, was a moment in international history. The preservation of the Holocaust Memorial Wall became a paramount issue in redesigning the sanctuary. And the Wall itself began its own journey of survival.
The original plan was to relocate the wall in its entirety to a new location on the Temple Beth Am campus. While that challenge percolated, our architect, Steve Rajninger of Herman Coliver Locus, designed a space adjacent to the new sanctuary to house both the Holocaust Wall and a new Hall of Memories – a sacred space on its own yet connected to the communal experience of the sacred. A space to contemplate and to remember. Uplifting in a way.
As plans to move forward with the Holocaust Wall/ Hall of Memories attached to the sanctuary were solidified, explorations of cost and feasibility were underway. It became clear that the wall would not survive dismantling and relocating; it was cemented in place over 50 years ago.
Restoration experts were brought in to create an exact replica of the Holocaust Wall and elements surrounding it. They created test molds and quality checks until they succeeded in creating a perfect reproduction of the original installation. Some pieces of the original wall, including the dedication stones were successfully installed in the floor of the new space, lending a powerful new dimension to the sacred experience in this new Hall of Memories.
The rescue effort and spectacular revitalization of the Holocaust Memorial at Temple Beth Am was made possible by tireless efforts of Dvorah Colker and the generous support of donors.
Please take your time in the Holocaust
Memorial/Hall of Memories. Your
experience will be one of sacred
contemplation and universal truths of
life mentioned before: loss, life, survival,
renewal, tragedy and triumph. Pay attention to the elements that surround and engulf you – light, sound, the river rock lining, the massive Holocaust Wall together with the individual memorial plaques for our own loved ones. The sound of Jewish life, prayer and celebration floating in from the sanctuary. It is a place to frame ourselves and place our Jewish life on a continuum of history and of personal experience. And this is the lead-in to the sanctuary where we must infuse the future with optimism. Wide-awake and deeply spiritual.
The new Holocaust Memorial and Hall of Memories is a brilliant and inspired installation. It will have an impact on communal and individual sacred experience far into the future. What a great story.