Memorial Wall

The memorial lighted boxes for the yahrzeits of the week were part of the original design of the Sanctuary, dating from the early days of Shaari Emeth, in the late 1960s. The metal sculpture on the memorial wall is also from the original design. The flame sculpture is to remind us of the Biblical Tabernacle flame. This “flame” motif is continued on several other metal sculptures in the sanctuary, such as the candelabra we light on Shabbat, and the Ner Tamid, the Eternal Light.

The Hebrew inscription at the top of the Memorial Wall is a quote from El Malay Rachamim, the memorial prayer that closes the funeral service. The quote, “Vayanuchu b’shalom al mishkavam” means “May they rest in peace.” Scholar Rabbi Bernard Zlotowitz, who at one time served as our NJ Regional Director for the then-UAHC (Union of American Hebrew Congregations, now the Union for Reform Judaism), suggested this quote to Rabbi Schechter as they left lunch together at a kibbutz during a rabbis’ convention in Israel. As you know, networking often takes place outside of formal convention settings!

Holocaust Memorials

The Cautin family donated the Holocaust Candelabra. It holds six candles, each one symbolizing each of the Six Million who were killed in the Holocaust. It is lighted on Yom Ha Shoa and Krystalnacht. Customarily, six congregational representatives who lost family in the Shoa (Holocaust) come forward to light the candles, one by one. The motif includes the “flame” design that is seen on the other Sanctuary sculptures. The Holocaust Menorah includes the word “Zachor “” (Hebrew imperative form of “Remember!”).

The Holocaust Memorial Wall depicts a tree stump with new growth sprouting, showing that the Jewish People still has life, even after the Holocaust. Similar designs were made in ceramic as art therapy for Holocaust camp survivors. A biblical reference to the cut tree stump sprouting new growth (a metaphor for Israel ) is found in Isaiah 6:13.

The six words around the tree stump are the names of six symbolic places, representing six infamous locations in Europe where Jews faced extermination during the Holocaust: Auschwitz, Terezin, Buchenwald and Dachau, the massacre site in Russia named Babi Yar and Bergen-Belsen. The names are spelled in Yiddish, the vernacular of most the victims.

The inscription at the top of the Holocaust Memorial wall is “Nizkor, We shall remember!”

Tree of Life

Hanging in the rear of the Social Hall, near the windows, is our original Mitzvah Plaque Board, shaped like a tree with branches and special metal leaves; this board was in the lobby many years ago. It is our original Tree of Life board, and the donors were early members who helped finance the beginning renovations and decoration of our Sanctuary.

Continue the Tour - Outside the Sanctuary