Obj. ID: 53498
Jewish Architecture Holocaust Memorial at the JCC in Rochester, NY, USA, 1982
Name of Monument
No official name
What/Who is commemorated?
Jewish victims of the Holocaust
Description
The monument in the form of a stylized menorah stands in the inner courtyard of the JCC of Greater Rochester, NY. It is situated in front of a grey wall of the building, on which the inscription זכור (Remember) is placed.
A seven-branched menorah stands on a concrete pedestal, which bears a plaque with an inscription. Its branches are of different height, with stylized fires, and two stylized pieces of barbed wire appear on its base, along with a broken post.
In 1986, the monument was supplemented by nine rectangular plaques with the names of Holocaust victims, with attached boxes for candles.
After 2014, three round-headed plaques with the names of Holocaust survivors who lived in Greater Rochester were added.
Inscriptions
Plaque on the pedestal of the menorah: [was covered by snow at the time of documentation]
Above the plaques with victims’ names:
Dedicated to the memory of the fathers and mothers, husbands and wives and children who perished
in the Holocaust… By their loved ones who survived and live in peace in Rochester, New York
On the central bronze plaque:
Remembered and not to be forgotten
are the uncounted number of souls
whose names perished with them.
Remember
געדענק זכור
[Yiddish and Hebrew: Remember!]
Dedicated
September 14, 1986
י אלול תשמו
[10 Elul (5)746]
On three plaques with survivors’ names:
In honor of our cherished
Rochester Holocaust survivors
We cherish all, both known and unknown, forever…
Text on a plaque in the JCC hall:
The Holocaust Memorial
Menorah Mazevah
The seven branch menorah is the oldest Jewish religious
symbol. It served to give light in our first Houses of God, the
Tabernacle in the wilderness and the Temple in Jerusalem.
To celebrate the triumph of Hanukkah, an eighth branch was added.
To commemorate the Holocaust, we diminish the menorah’s branches to six to symbolize the Six Million.
Menorahs of celebration are graceful in form, beautiful to behold.
Our Menorah of Commemoration, angular, jagged, strong,
has been forged to arrest our attention, to assail our memory.
The gold of the lives of our martyred brethren and the red of
their blood are its colors.
The barbed wire about the trunk recalls to us death and
destruction. The living flames rising from the branches affirm
the commitment to life of the Jewish people.
The Holocaust Memorial we dedicate this day is:
a Memorial Mazevah for more than two
thousand eight hundred members of our families who
perished in the Holocaust … who live on in our
memories … who, we shall never forget …
a Memorial Menorah for our children,
through whom we shall live … so they should
remember…
Dedicated on this Day of Remembrance and Commemoration
2 Iyar 5742 April 25, 1982
Delivered by
Rabbi Abraham J. Karp, Chairman
The Holocaust Commission
of the
Jewish Community Federation of Rochester
Sculpture: David Klass
Commissioned by
Holocaust Memorial Commission of the Jewish Community Federation of Rochester
sub-set tree:
| JCC, 1200 Edgewood Ave, Rochester, NY 14618
Concretes
Pedestal: 205 cm x 223 cm
Survivors’ plaque: 138 cm x 56 cm
Victims’ plaque: 122 cm x 56 cm
Lower left: David Klass / Sculptor 1982
According to the artist’s signature, the monument was created in 1982. It was unveiled on Sunday, April 25, 1982, “before the crowd of approximately 700” (The Jewish Ledger, May 6, 1982, p. 15).
In 1986, nine bronze plaques with the names of Holocaust victims were affixed on the wall behind the monument.
About 2014, bronze plaques with the names of survivors were added. In the photographs from 2015, there are four such plaques, placed in pair on the both side of the plaques with victims’ names. During the documentation in 2024, three survivors’ plaques were found, all of them affixed to the wall between the menorah monument and the victims’ plaques (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=839695702758547&set=pb.100066595117028.-2207520000).