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HOLOCAUST
MEMORIAL
Quick Links:
An Essay By Artist Laurie Gross
Men's Club Yom HaShoah Fund
Submit Names for Re-Initiation of Holocaust Memorial List
As a community, our congregation honored Yom HaShoah during our Erev Shabbat service on April 16, 2004.
We dedicated a Holocaust Memorial sculpture near the Foster Family Chapel, the theme of which is based on the act of kriah,
the custom of tearing the garment of a mourner. The inscription reads:
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For hearts that are torn
We shall always remember |
The steel sculpture, which stands approximately 12' tall, was donated by our Men's Club. It was designed by artist Laurie Gross of Laurie Gross Studios. The Memorial Garden in which the sculpture stands was designed by landscape architect David Reed.
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| Photo by Beverly Miller |
An Essay By Artist Laurie Gross
Congregation Beth Israel Dedication April 16, 2004
The assignment to create a Holocaust Memorial is a daunting task. To choose an idea or concept to symbolize such a tragic experience in the history of our people is a challenge. I have now had two opportunities to do so. In the first project, 18 years ago, I created a woven sculpture. Communicating through the texture of the cloth and the threads, the piece symbolizes both the strong foundation
of our people and the fragility of the lives of those who suffered the horrible acts of hatred and destruction during the dark time of our recent human history. Today we dedicate the second Holocaust Memorial piece I have created. This sculpture,
titled Kriah, is sitting in an outdoor garden setting. It is made of a very different material, steel. Though the choice of material is most appropriate for this setting, the hand and spirit of the weaver is still an integral design element.
Kriah is the rending of cloth, the tearing of one's clothing upon hearing of the loss of a loved one. It is a very powerful act. The death of someone close to us is a tragic loss, one that will forever change who we are in the world.
To experience such a loss is to feel as if our hearts are torn. Our Jewish tradition gives us a gift in this ceremonial act that symbolizes in an outward act that which we are feeling internally when the tragedy of loss touches our lives.
For me, as a textile artist, Kriah is a particularly personal act. The notion
of taking a piece of cloth that I might have woven and destroying it, ripping
it, is very potent. Similarly, the interconnectedness of our lives which is torn
apart, especially when someone dies violently, is a wrenching experience for
all. And so it was with this image of torn fabric and torn hearts in mind that
I began to develop the sculpture Kriah as a memorial for those who perished in
the Holocaust.
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It is a larger than life representation of a piece of cloth, made of steel with
a surface of rust. The surface is tooled with the texture of a weave pattern
to suggest the reference to cloth; the steel is cut and bent to suggest the giant
tear in action. This describes what you see with your eyes when you stand before
the sculpture. But, to experience the piece through the sense of sight alone
limits what this piece is about. You must also hear the tearing of the cloth.
I ask you to close your eyes and imagine the sound of the tearing of cloth. Now
hear it again….and again….and again ….now hear it a hundred
times…hear it a thousand times….hear it a million times…..and
now hear it six million times. Now open your eyes. With this sound in your minds,
see the piece through your senses of sight and sound, together.
In preparation for designing this piece, I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington,
DC, to do some research and prepare for the work. I saw many things and learned
a lot in my visit there. I looked at photographs and artifacts; I studied how
artists had responded through the media of paint and sculpture. I read the words
of poets and I listened to the survivors themselves tell their personal stories
through audiotape and film. The whole experience was all very powerful and moving.
But the one thing that I read there that day which touched me the most were the
words of Russian poet, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who was born in 1933. In 1961, Yevtushenko
wrote a poem to commemorate the WWII massacre at Babi Yar near Kiev. Here is
a portion of that poem:
The wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar
The trees look ominous like judges
Here all the things scream silently
And, baring my head slowly I feel myself turning grey.
And I myself am one massive soundless scream.
Above the thousand thousand buried here.
When you experience my sculpture, Kriah, imagine the echoing sound of torn cloth,
millions of pieces ripped simultaneously, and remember the words of the poet: "And
I myself am one massive soundless scream."
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Artist Laurie Gross
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The Men's Club Yom HaShoah
Fund:
The Men's Club Yom HaShoah Fund was created many
years ago to help underwrite educational activities at Congregation Beth Israel
regarding the Holocaust. Men's Club dues and donations received from the mailing
of Yom HaShoah Yahrtzeit candles are used in
support of the Fund.
The Erev Shabbat Service included the presentation
of selected essays written by our sixth-grade students. Laurie Gross, the artist
who designed the Holocaust sculpture, talked about its creation, which took more
than a year to complete.
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Please Submit Names for Our
Re-Initiation of Holocaust Memorial List
As part of our Holocaust commemoration, we will be re-initiating a Holocaust
Memorial List. Many of us have family members or loved ones who perished during
this tragic period in our history. Unfortunately, we do not have previous records.
If you wish to list names of your loved ones, even
if you have done so before, please mail them to the synagogue, Attn: Gail Malkus,
or email them to gmalkus@cbisd.org.
In addition, please let us know if you are a Holocaust
survivor in order to assure our records are complete. We would like to
extend to you a very special invitation to join us that evening.
Please, even if you have provided us with this information previously, we ask
that you do so again. It is our wish to represent our congregation and its loved
ones as fully as possible. go to top
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