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May 27, 2005/Iyar 18 5765, Volume 57, No. 39
Memorial withdrawn from heritage center
DEBORAH SUSSMAN SUSSER
Associate Editor
Plans by the Phoenix Holocaust Survivors' Association to establish a Holocaust memorial on the grounds of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society site in downtown Phoenix have come to an end.
In an e-mail sent May 16 to Jerry Lewkowitz, president of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society, David Kader, president of the PHSA, writes that the survivors' group board of directors voted May 15 to terminate "effective immediately - the effort to establish a Jewish Survivors Holocaust memorial" at the Culver Street site.
"Well over a year has already been lost to date - with neither a shovel of earth turned or a dollar raised - and further lethargy and inaction were patterns that the Survivors' Association no longer could abide," Kader states in his e-mail. "Given this decision, the escrow account resolution that was adopted by the PHSA board is rescinded."
Kader, who is in China, did not respond to the Jewish News' e-mailed questions.
Lewkowitz, who is traveling in Australia, was unavailable for comment.
Risa Mallin, who recently resigned as executive director of the AJHS, issued the following written statement:
"It is with deep regret that the Holocaust Survivors Memorial will not be on the grounds of the CutlerPlotkin Jewish Heritage Center. The decision was made solely by the Phoenix Holocaust Survivors' Association. The AzJHS has always felt that the memorial should be located on the historic downtown location of the Jewish Heritage Center as a fitting tribute to the influence of the survivors on the history of our community and on that historical era of ... persecution of our people."
In 2002, when the Culver Street synagogue site was purchased by the AJHS, the group announced plans not only to restore the sanctuary but also to provide "Holocaust exhibit facilities." Mallin said that those plans remain in place.
Rabbi Albert Plotkin, one of the namesakes of the CutlerPlotkin Jewish Heritage Center and a member of the AJHS board, also expressed disappointment about the termination of the agreement with the PHSA. But, he added, "If you're going to achieve a goal, you've got to have 100 percent behind both parties, and that wasn't there. So I understand why (the PHSA) withdrew."
On May 22, two members of the PHSA board met with Fred Zeidman, assistant executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, to discuss the possibility of bringing a Holocaust memorial to the grounds of the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus in Scottsdale. Zeidman, who said that he was not aware of an agreement between the PHSA and the AJHS, referred the PHSA board members to the campus' facility director, Steven Kennedy.
"The next step is I think up to them," Zeidman said. "I simply was asked to facilitate the opening of the door again and I gladly did that."
Both Zeidman and Kennedy said they had been approached by PHSA president David Kader almost two years ago, but nothing further came of that initial meeting.
"We said if (Kader) presented a concept, it would be presented to the LLC board (of the campus) for consideration," Kennedy told Jewish News in a February interview. "That was the end of it."
Now, Kennedy said, "What we're doing is trying to find a location either at the campus, at The King David School or at the future site of the Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School (all adjacent to one another). But as of yet, there has been no site selection. They have not come up with a concept that they want to go with. So we're just trying to see which one of the three areas might work. They have their own architectural designer working on it, but we haven't sat down.
"They just wanted to see if there was a possibility, and I said of course there's a possibility, this is the Jewish Community Campus. We'd welcome something like that here, if we could find the concept, and if it was acceptable to the board."
"There's some consensus building to do," said Zeidman. "We really are a community on this 30 acres ... I would expect that whichever property was the one that was being spoken with, that ... we would all be able to support the location should they choose to locate here. It's what family does."
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