BEDFORD HEIGHTS, Ohio — Once a year, a commemoration is held on the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at the Kol Israel Foundation Holocaust National Memorial in Cuyahoga County. On Sunday, the foundation hosted the 65th annual fall memorial; it honors and remembers the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust.
“We were chased out of our house when nothing, and we survived and what my parents could carry on their back and exchange for food,” said Sylvia Lavon, a Holocaust survivor.
Lavon said she was eight years old when she and her parents were deported from Romania and forced to survive harsh conditions during the Holocaust. She and her parents came to the U.S. in 1956.
On Sunday, Lavon lit a candle as a survivor. Other candle lighters included second and third descendants of Holocaust survivors.
“I lost one grandmother, two aunts and three uncles there, typhoid fever and starvation and, very lucky to have come back with my parents,” said Lavon.
Lavon was just one of dozens of people at the memorial site paying tribute. Kol Israel Foundation Memorial chairman, Mark Frank, said these tributes are part of their tradition.
“There’s an obligation in the Jewish religion that you should visit the graves of your departed relatives between the high holiday of your Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur,” said Frank.
This memorial is the first federally funded Holocaust memorial in the Buckeye State. State Senator Casey Weinstein said it’s important to remember the values of the Jewish community.
“When we reflect on our past and think about our future and think about the values that are so important to our community and the strength that we try to maintain,” said Weinstein.
Weinstein sponsored the state resolution that encouraged the federal government to make the memorial a national memorial. The resolution was passed in 2022. Congress and President Joe Biden designated it a national memorial in late Dec. 2022.
“It’s an important thing that we do, that we educate, and we learn from the past to ensure that no group is targeted for hatred or bigotry, and certainly that we never have anything happen like the Holocaust again,” said Weinstein.
The memorial has been in place since 1961. The memorial contains ashes and artifacts from victims of three concentration camps. Names of over 1700 Holocaust victims are inscribed on the Memorial’s walls and pillars.
Following a multi-year transformation, the site now has a resurfaced walkway with personalized pavers, six pillars, new lighting, refreshed landscaping, and new flagpoles. The memorial also has an Ohio historical marker and a national memorial marker. The memorial became an Ohio historical site in Sept. 2017.
The Jewish Federation of Cleveland co-sponsored the commemoration with the Kol Israel Foundation. The foundation was founded in 1959 by Holocaust survivors who came to Cleveland. It is now run by their direct descendants.