Human life is sacred to all who believe in God, the source of all that is. Even a secular humanist, with perhaps no recognition of the divine, considers life a value to be safeguarded. Violation of one human life, or millions, by individuals, groups or governments affects us all. The garden of the righteous, conceived and implemented by the caring and tender remembrance of Helena Wind Preston, of happy memory, during the celebration of Israel Expo, is a tribute to those whose lives were witnesses to faith, tradition, brotherhood and inalienable rights. The efforts to make this memorial perpetual in honor of those who suffered from man’s inhumanity to man and to those who tried to help stem the tide of such defamation deserves support from every thinking and concerned individual.
As a member of the Catholic Community in the Wilmington area, I salute those who are honored and those who keep our consciousness raised by making this monument as permanent as possible.
May those whose lives we remember help us to be better neighbors to one another and witnesses to world reconciliation, peace and harmony.
Rev. Msgr. Paul J. Schierse,
Pastor
St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine
This year we celebrated the 13th anniversary of the Center in our building on Garden of Eden Road. During that 13-year period, we have provided our community with many memorable programs and events, all of which have come to symbolize the importance of the Jewish Community Center in our community.
Our dedication of the Memorial to the “Righteous Gentiles” makes another proud moment in our JCC’s history. This memorial garden, singularly unique as the only memorial of its kind in the United States, will in the future become a focal point for educating our membership and the larger community about the Holocaust. We are proud to present it to the community.
Dr. Marvin Shepard President
Jewish Community Center
The Garden of The Righteous is an important reminder of and inspiration for one’s truly living their religious principles. It speaks to the courage and action that an individual’s faith can inspire. The garden challenges each of us in today’s world to take a hard look at how we act upon our religious values especially in the way we relate to our fellow human kind. Out of the horrors of the Holocaust are important learnings such as these of which we must never lose sight.
Helen F. Foss
Executive Director
National Conference of Christians and Jews
Our Jewish community should feel proud and honored to have created the first Garden of Righteous in the United States. The perpetuation of the memory of what happened to our people during the Holocaust is essential — it is the world’s insurance that such inhumanity to man will never be repeated.
We also have another sacred obligation: to remember the humanitarian efforts of the righteous Christians. These individuals risked their lives, and the security of their families, to save their Jewish countrymen. When we teach our children the lessons of the Holocaust, let us also teach them about bravery, goodness and righteousness as exemplified in the deeds of the Righteous Christians. Come to this ceremony, and bring your children, to remember the people whose concern for fellow human beings stood out as a beacon of hope in an otherwise mad, uncaring world.
Leo Zeftel
President Jewish Federation
Of Delaware
In A Ballad of Trees and the Master, Sidney Lanier wrote:
Into the woods my Master went,
Clean forspent, forspent.
Into the woods my Master came,
Forspent with love and shame.
But the olives they were not blind to Him;
The little gray leaves were kind to Him;
The thorn-tree had a mind to Him
When into the woods He came.
Perhaps, when we are “forspent” with the evil in the world within us and around us, we can find comfort and support in this garden—in its own right and in the memory of those to whom it is dedicated.
Dr. George F. Cora
Executive Director
Delmarva Ecumenical Agency