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

