Photo: Dr. MICHAEL LOZMAN discusses his efforts.
President and founder of the Capital District Jewish Holocaust Memorial (CDJHM) Dr. Michael Lozman has announced that he requested that Dan Dembling assume the office of presidency, and this request was then submitted to and approved by the CDJHM Board of Directors. Dembling is the architect of the memorial and has been involved with its development since it was first proposed by Lozman in 2017.
Lozman, currently appointed by President Biden to be a member of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, has a background of working to preserve Jewish history in Eastern Europe. He developed a unique program of bringing college students to engage in the restoration of Jewish cemeteries, completing the project with 10 cemeteries in Belarus and five in Lithuania.The restorations consisted of installing an iron fence around each cemetery to safeguard them from being built upon followed by righting fallen stones, removing debris, and bringing the cemetery back to its respectful appearance. The students all engaged in Holocaust studies prior to making the trip to Eastern Europe and visited Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland before traveling to the village for the restoration project.
Lozman’s work has received international, national, and local media attention, and he has lectured extensively, both locally and abroad.
It was his experience of working in Eastern Europe over a period of almost 20 years that inspired Lozman to have a Holocaust memorial constructed in the Albany area.
His vision was and is that a meaningful memorial is essential to both memorialize the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their sympathizers and to educate against anti-Semitism and hatred. He has said that,“we must make a stand of who we are and that we will not be victimized, now or ever again.”
Lozman approached Bishop Scharfenberger of the Albany Catholic Diocese with his vision and invited him to “to join in this fight against hatred’ and the bishop and his diocese, in immediate agreement, donated the property for the construction of the memorial.”
Lozman, 86, plans to continue fighting against anti-Semitism and prejudice on a more global scale with his work on the U.S. Commission.
His closing remarks as president, about the memorial included, “All memorials developed in this country have initially been controversial but after installation they became a lasting and respected hallmark. Let’s all join together to bring this important Holocaust memorial to life. It is more important now than ever before.”
