22 | JANUARY 23 • 2020
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Alex and Cheryl Goldis, left, with their family: Nadav, Liad and Susan Goren,
Libby Newman, Jaclyn Goldis, Arica and Jason Goldis.
Holocaust Memorial Center
in Farmington Hills. He also
worked with a Zhitomir archi-
tect, Valery Golovatenko, who
secured the necessary local gov-
ernment permits and approvals.
The word “challenging”
doesn’
t begin to describe the
six-year process of supervising
a project on the other side of
the world, Goldis said.
“Six years, three Skype con-
ference calls every week, and
a multitude of government
bureaucracy and construction
hurdles had to be overcome on
the path to completion of the
Zhitomir Holocaust Memorial,
”
he said.
The memorial, which covers
about 4,000 square feet and
includes a 12-foot-high mark-
er, was dedicated in memory
of Goldis’
mother, Khana bat
Israel, who came to Detroit in
1979, but died just nine months
later. Her parents, Azriel and
Itta Shpiegel, were among those
buried at the site.
The marker has a verse from
the biblical prophet Jeremiah
in Hebrew, Ukrainian and
English: “O that my head would
stream with water and my eyes
a fountain of tears. They would
cry day and night for the slain
of my people.
”
Goldis said, “Now, 78 years
after the Nazis marched thou-
sands of Zhitomir Jews into
the forest to be murdered, I am
proud that the memorial stone
honors their memories and
ensures that their final resting
site remains a lesson on the
perils of evil and anti-Semitism.
“The Zhitomir Jewish
community is now begin-
ning to flourish,
” Goldis said.
“Nonetheless, due to the war
on Ukraine’
s eastern border,
many Jewish refugees are seek-
ing shelter in Zhitomir, causing
a huge strain on the communi-
ty. Orphans, Jewish day schools
and the aging population
demand resources, which are
very scarce.
”
While Goldis and his family
covered the cost of the memo-
rial, they are raising funds to
help the financially distressed
Jewish community of Zhitomir.
Donations can be made
online at fjc-fsu.org/centers/
ukraine/zhitomyir or by check
mailed to the Federation
of Jewish Communities of
the CIS, 445 Park Ave., 9th
Floor, New York, NY 10022.
Specify that the donation is for
Zhitomir.
COURTESY GOLDIS FAMILY
Jews in the D