Img. ID: 425266
Who is Commemorated?
Jewish victims of the Holocaust
Description
In the center of the cemetery on the axis from the entrance is a low circular mound, which the main paved path encircles. On the axis with the entrance, one sees and approaches a granite stele with a low angled wall in front, on which plaques are affixed. Behind this is a flagpole, from which flies the American flag. Behind this, is a large metal menorah, which is fully viewed from the other side of the mound.
Inscriptions
On stele:
In memory
of
Six million Jewish
Martyrs and heroes
On small plaque between six plaques with names:
Victims of the
Holocaust
remembered
Commissioned by
New Light Cemetery Association
Lincolnwood is located just to the northwest of Chicago. The New Light Society (known as Chevra Or Chodash) was established in 1895 to provide burial places for the Jewish members of the New Light Society and their immediate families. The Society was dissolved in 1926 by the Illinois Secretary of State for the failure to file annual reports, and was transformed into the New Light Cemetery Association. In 1895 the area was unpopulated, with no paved roads. Now the cemetery is amid a settled residential and business community.
In 2000, the Association erected a central Holocaust memorial. At least one other monument in the cemetery commemorates victims of the Holocaust. This is a private stone erected by the Ratzenstien and Oberland families listing names, birth, and death dates of ten European family members killed between 1940 and 1943.
The cemetery Association holds an annual memorial service in front of the Holocaust Monument taking place between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The services are conducted by clergy selected from the larger Chicago Jewish community.