Alliance raises $1M for memorial

By Rebecca Keister
PBN Staff Writer

The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island has begun its fundraising effort to raise almost $1 million for a planned Holocaust memorial that would be located at Market Square in Providence and will target major donors over the next six months to complete the task.

“We are gearing up for this process,” said Herb Stern, chairman of the alliance’s memorial committee. “We’re at the beginning stages.”

The alliance last month chose a memorial design by Jonathan Bonner, a Providence sculptor. Stern said it will be a “living memorial” that will include an interactive aspect in which visitors can use smartphones to receive digital information.

“It has the opportunity to be a very powerful educational tool,” Stern said. “We have the ability to do something right now that people couldn’t do with them in the past.”

The alliance also will seek corporate sponsors and offer residents and other interested parties the ability to sponsor a memorial brick as part of its fundraising plans.

The memorial was reported to need $800,000 but Stern said the committee likely needs closer to $1 million.