The Match – Congregation Beth Shalom Shoah Memorial

The Match – Custom Memorial

Holocaust Memorial Dedicated Nisan 5766

At Temple Beth Shalom in Northbrook, IL. We created forms that came from three concepts from Jewish symbols related to the Holocaust and hope for the future. At the bottom of the wall, we started by using the poem of Chana Senish called “Blessing the Match” for inspiration. Chana Senish was a Hungarian Jew by birth and escaped from the Nazis to go to Kibbutz Gat Yam in Israel. While there she volunteered to serve in the British Army and spied on the Germans using their intelligence code for benefit of the Allies. British intelligence leaked that she was doing this and the Germans tortured her and she died. As a famous poet and writer in Israel, she wrote quite well-known songs that were used in synagogues in the United States. like the song that’s called “The Walk to Caesarea”. She was also known for her poetry such as “Blessing the Match”. This part of the sculpture for her was based on this poem which I created in bronze with a post from a camp with fire in the children’s hands. The hands reached up into the next stage in granite. In the granite, I create hope and turned the granite into a talit. The hands of the children etched in the granite come from the barbed wire and become the Star of David and the success of Israel. In the third stage on the left side, I created a railroad with the names of the camps that creates the contrast for the viewer from despair and sadness to the success of the Jewish nation to develop the state of Israel and become a free nation.    – Omri Amrany