Queens Jewish leaders and elected officials broke ground on a planned memorial dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust outside Borough Hall on Tuesday.
It will become the only standalone Holocaust memorial in the entire borough of Queens, which is home to 11 percent of the city’s Jewish population.
The Queens Holocaust Memorial Garden was advocated for by the borough’s Jewish community and funded with the help of the mayor’s office, the borough president and other local electeds.
“A memorial like this is so important, right here in Queens, where so many Holocaust survivors, so many Jews have made their home just nearby,” said First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro. “We’re going to see a beautifully landscaped memorial that honors the memories of so many who lost their lives, tragically, senselessly, and we will never forget.”
Final design and construction of the memorial have yet to be completed, but the property outside Borough Hall has passed from the city onto the Borough President’s office so work can begin.
“There has to be design and acceptance with community input,” said Mastro. “We have to go through the city’s process to create a fitting memorial that we can all be proud of, and that will happen in the coming months.”
Initial designs include two ringed areas, a “Ring of Immortality,” and a “Ring of Peace,” which includes a garden space for respite and reflection.
Between the rings there will be a “Path of Remembrance” walkway, which will include Holocaust artifacts as symbolic reminders.
The path will be flanked by 12 trees symbolizing the twelve tribes of Jacob.
New York-based architecture firm Rafael Viñoly Architects made the initial designs.
The project will not just be there to memorialize those lost, but to educate visitors on the Holocaust and its impact.
The mayor’s office has committed $2 million toward the project, with another $1 million from the borough president, who on Tuesday said he would allocate an additional $1 million dollars.
“Today we commit, as a borough, to never forgetting what they went through,” said Richards. “We commit to never again allowing that kind of evil and hatred to take hold in our society, and that’s why we are building this holocaust memorial at Queens Borough Hall, to send a message to the world that the world’s borough will not sit by and let antisemitism rule the day, that we will learn from the mistakes of the past and the lessons history teaches us about runaway hate.”
“You cannot tell the story of Queens without talking about our Jewish community, without talking about the community’s strength, resilience and dedication to service,” added Richards.
The project was pushed by members of the Queens Jewish community, and the Queens Jewish Congress.
“We are going to make this a beautiful Holocaust Memorial Garden for everyone in New York and particularly those in Queens,” said Michael Nussbaum, chairman of the Queens Holocaust Memorial Garden who spearheaded the project and who also serves as the Eagle’s publisher.
“In the months and years ahead, as we build upon this and it now becomes a memorial garden, let us not forget that we still have a great many challenges ahead of us,” he added. “Similarly, let this memorial garden be a place where anyone could come to reflect and seek peace. Let it always be a remembrance of the past but a hope for the future.”
Several members of the Queens political delegation pledged on Tuesday to also help fund the project.
State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky announced she would throw in an additional million.
“I see the memorial garden not just as a voice against antisemitism, but also against Islamophobia, against racial incidents, and every other crime against humanity,” she said.
Assemblymember Sam Berger, who spoke about his family’s own experiences with the horrors of the Holocaust, said he and the Queens Assembly delegation hope to lobby in next year’s budget for more money.
“My grandfather was born in Hungary, and they had everything taken from them,” Berger said. “Their homes were stripped away, friends were murdered, loved ones butchered. My own great grandfather, Schmuel, who I am named after in part, was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz, along with my great uncle, but my grandparents survived.”
“Today’s announcement honors that foundation and the memorial that will be built on this site will ensure that their story, my grandparents’ story, and the stories of countless others, of their resilience and their legacy will be remembered forever,” Berger added.
Queens Imam Muhammad Shahidullah, who runs a program that helps facilitate conversations between Jewish and Muslim students in Queens, supports the memorial and stressed the importance of Queens’ diverse communities communicating and working with one another.
“We work together, we live together,” he told the Eagle.
With the Adams administration already on its way out the door of City Hall, design and construction of the memorial will fall on the incoming Mamdani administration.
Ali Najmi, who served as both the top attorney to Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s campaign and transition, represented the incoming administration at the groundbreaking.
“This project will continue,” Najmi told the Eagle. “It will be great for Queens.”
The memorial will be built on the plaza at the corner of Queens Boulevard and 82nd Avenue across the street from Queens Criminal Court.
The lot was the former site of the old Redbird train car which was at Borough Hall until 2022.
The Redbird, the last of the vintage train cars that prompted the use of the term “straphanger,” was retired in the early 2000s, and was sold at auction for over $235,000 and moved.
