09/24/2026
Kol Israel Foundation Holocaust Memorial Receives Federal Fame
U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster (center) assists Kol Israel Foundation memorial co-chairs Joshua Kaplovitz and Mark Frank pull back the cover from the plaque designating Kol Israel National Memorial at Zion Memorial Park as the country’s only federally designated Holocaust memorial. CJN Photo / Martha Sorohan
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
by Martha Sorohan
Midway through the 65th annual Fall Memorial at the Kol Israel Foundation National Holocaust Memorial on Sept. 20 inside Bedford Heights’ Zion Memorial Park, a black felt cover was pulled back to unveil a new marker distinguishing the site as the nation’s only federally recognized memorial that preserves the memory of 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust.
The designation marker was five years in the making.
Founded in 1961 by Cleveland Holocaust survivors and their families to give local Holocaust mourners a place to say Kaddish at a matzevah, or monument, the site attained recognition status in late 2022, through an act of Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden. Renamed Kol Israel Foundation Holocaust National Memorial, it was renovated in 2024, each of its six pillars and lamps representing 1 million Jewish Holocaust victims; the names of 1,600 of them are inscribed on the memorial’s walls and pillars.
“The chasm between Holocaust survivors and their departed ones was finally bridged,” Julie Kronenberg, presenter and memorial committee member, said of the site.
Held annually on the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Kol Israel Fall Memorial included a color guard procession and recession, ceremonial candlelighting, and prayers and kaddish led by Park Synagogue Cantor Misha Pisman and Temple Israel Ner Tamid Rabbi Matthew J. Eisenberg.
Following the unveiling, Kol Israel Foundation president Deborah Chudakoff spoke of the tragedy of Jews killed during the Holocaust for no crime other than being Jewish while warning that the current political climate is close to that of 1937 Germany.
“‘Never again’ is not our response for today,” she said. “Back then, ‘never again’ is now. We need to act quickly before it becomes ‘it’s here again.’”
Jewish Federation of Cleveland President Erika B. Rudin-Luria said she was honored to be part of the ceremony remembering millions of Jews who perished or survived the Holocaust.
“This site calls us to remember not only our personal obligation, but a collective one,” Rudin-Luria said. “This is living proof of the triumph of resilience over destruction.”
Eisenberg said he hoped the bees buzzing about were precursors of a “sweet year” before using the example of Moses’ 120-year life to demonstrate the importance of future generations in passing on God’s covenant.
“Those of us who are Holocaust survivors, and the second and third and future generations, must uphold the past,” he said. “We remember their lives. We will use them to overcome hate and intolerance.”
The Days of Remembrance are a time to share sorrows as well as rebuild a world with hope, reason, righteousness and goodness, Eisenberg said.
“This is our sacred vow,” he said, as the service ended with Avinu Malkeinu, El Malei Rachamim, Kaddish and “Hatikvah” as light rain fell.
Lighting torches earlier in the ceremony were Romanian Holocaust survivor Sylvia Lavon, on behalf of herself, her husband, Garry, and her family, Kol Israel founders who arrived in Cleveland in 1956; second-generation Holocaust survivors Bill and Wendy Schwarz, on behalf of his parents, Holocaust survivors Ruth and Abraham Schwartz of Poland who came to Cleveland in 1956; Josh Kramer, whose grandparents arrived from Poland in 1949 after surviving the Holocaust and co-founded Kol Israel; Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation board chair Stephen H. Hoffman on behalf of community partners; Mark Schloss, his daughter, Carrie Schloss and his granddaughter Noa Kelley-Schloss, lighting the educator candle in memory of Mark’s wife, Shelley Weitz Schloss, the daughter of Slovakian Holocaust survivors and namesake of the newly established Shelley Weitz Schloss Memorial Fund; and U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster, chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Jordan/Cross-Border initiative, lighting the government partner candle.
A seventh candle, representing future generations and remembering young victims of the Holocaust as well as victims of the terrorist invasion on Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, was lit by a dozen children from the 300-member audience.
“May this candle remind us that each generation has the power to choose kindness over hatred, understanding over prejudice and hope over fear,” memorial committee member and co-presenter Jordan Walman said.
“The Holocaust calls on each one of us to stand guard against such hatred in our own time,” Kronenberg said.
