Community leaders, scholars and Jewish advocacy groups largely welcomed New York City’s announcement of a planned Holocaust memorial to be constructed at Queens Borough Hall. But some cautioned that remembrance alone is insufficient to confront contemporary Jew-hatred.
Edward Rothstein, critic-at-large at The Wall Street Journal, told JNS that he doesn’t have specific knowledge of the particular memorial, which Mayor Eric Adams and Donovan Richards, the Queens Borough president, announced last month, but there “is no question that establishing it is a political move.”
The city and the borough president’s office have said they will allocate $3 million for the memorial, which, they said, will honor the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust and survivors who rebuilt their lives in New York City.
“In this case, I appreciate the gesture because of the incoming mayor, who has already made clear again and again that his hostility to Israel and to those who support it will be one of his guiding principles,” Rothstein told JNS, of mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
“The memorial is a gesture that has some significance given what is to come,” he said.
But Rothstein is also skeptical that Holocaust education alone can deter Jew-hatred effectively.
“The problem is that the Holocaust is not the trump card in dealing with antisemitism,” he told JNS. “One of the great fallacies of the last half century is that if you have enough teaching about the Holocaust and its effects, you will help bring an end to the hatred that made it possible. It obviously doesn’t.”
Rabbi Yossi Blesofsky of Chabad of Northeast Queens welcomed the memorial but said that there must be proactive Jewish life and education alongside remembrance.
“Memorials that remind humanity to learn from past catastrophes, particularly in light of the recent worldwide explosion of antisemitism, are a good thing and always welcome,” the rabbi told JNS. “While memorializing the Holocaust,” he and colleagues at Chabad “focus on a Jewish future through positive actions,” he added.
Blesofsky cited Tamim Academy, a 200-student Chabad-inspired day school in Queens, as an example of that kind of strengthening Jewish life locally. He also said that the memorial is significant in light of recent tensions between Jewish leaders and city officials.
“The positive actions of Queens Borough Hall are welcome news, especially coming after the discouraging silence of Borough Hall on very disturbing comments made repeatedly by the mayor-elect about Jews and Israel,” he said. “Those comments have been deeply troubling to the Jewish community in Queens.”
A self-identified democratic socialist, Mamdani has said that he would have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested in New York City and declined to say that the phrase “globalize the intifada” calls for violence against Jews. His spokeswoman said houses of worship shouldn’t be sites of violations of international law after protesters blocked Jews from entering a Manhattan synagogue.
Josh Kramer, New York regional director of the American Jewish Committee, told JNS that the AJC welcomes “the announcement of this new memorial, which is an important addition to our city’s rich tapestry of remembrance and celebration of the Jewish community.
“Once opened, we hope that it will help teach future generations about the dangers of bias, hatred and antisemitism,” he said.
Kramer thanked and congratulated state and city officials, as well as the Queens Jewish Community Council, for supporting the initiative.
The memorial will be developed via a formal design process and is set to include a commemorative garden and public artwork, with consultation from artists, historians and Holocaust survivors, according to the city.
City officials have said the site will serve as a permanent space for remembrance, education and unity.
