Monument in Honor of Holocaust Victims

Monument in Molchad

On July 23, Public Affairs Officer Carrie Lee participated in a commemorative ceremony to unveil a monument in honor of Holocaust victims near the village of Molchad in the Baranovichy area. 

The monument marks the site where 3,600 Jews were murdered by the Nazis in 1942. In her remarks, Carrie Lee emphasized the importance of memory in Jewish heritage and Jewish traditions and encouraged all the ceremony participants to reflect upon these horrendous losses and honor the resilience of the Jewish people. She recognized the local authorities and residents, Jewish communities and organizations, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the British Simon Mark Lazarus Foundation, American sponsors of the Miles and Merelin Kletter Family Fund, and other donors for their hard and consistent work in dedicating this and many other monuments across Belarus. 

Carrie Lee stressed that these mutual efforts help to build tolerance and respect for different religions and faiths which are values that we all endorse.  The touching and solemn ceremony ended with the Rabbi reading a Jewish Kaddish prayer and participants laying stones to the memorial according to the Jewish tradition.