Atlantic City Boardwalk Holocaust Memorial will be located in front of Stockton University’s Boardwalk campus.
ATLANTIC CITY – The public is invited to attend a reception 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 26 at the Fannie Lou Hamer Room at Stockton University Atlantic City Boardwalk campus, 3711 Atlantic Ave.
The reception will introduce the Atlantic City Boardwalk Holocaust Memorial, which will be an enduring symbol of human tolerance, remembrance, strength and hope. The organization that has forwarded the creation of the memorial will share information about its evolution and unveil a three-dimensional model of the unique sculpture. And attendees will meet the architect who designed it.
Rabbi Gordon Geller of Shirat Hayam Reform Congregation in Ventnor.
Rabbi Gordon Geller, the religious leader of the reform movement at Shirat Hayam Synagogue in neighboring Ventnor, led a decade-long effort to get the memorial built on the World Famous Atlantic City Boardwalk. The memorial will be located in front of the residence hall on the Boardwalk at Roosevelt Plaza.
“We are very eager to get it up at this time in our nation’s history with all the intolerance and divisiveness of today,” Rabbi Geller said. “It’s an idea whose time has come.”
He called architect Daniel Scott Mascione’s final design, “brilliant and very moving.”
The 10-foot high monument represents a wave, which is appropriate being so close to the ocean, and large number of rocks will be encased in a steel cage beneath.
“The wave really represents the tsunami that engulfed European Jewry,” Rabbi Geller said.
Mascione said the rocks were inspired by the Jewish tradition of placing rocks on gravesites.
The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority approved a $500,000 challenge grant for the project. The memorial committee is required to raise the additional $500,000 needed to build the memorial, which could be completed within two years.
A donation of $36 includes hors d’oeuvres, wine and beer. Parking is available on Atlantic Avenue.
To make a reservation, email acbhm2018@gmail.com or call Sherrie at 609-335-4932. Checks may also be sent to ACBHM, PO Box 1865, Atlantic City, NJ 08404.
See theacbhm.org
