At LI museum, butterflies link Shoah and Oct 7
While most people today know something about the Holocaust, future generations will not have the opportunity to hear firsthand accounts from survivors.
Nevertheless, we’ll need to keep the history of the Shoah alive. That’s something that can be accomplished by watching movies and documentaries, going to museums, reading books or hearing survivors’ recorded testimonies.
I have visited a few Holocaust museums over the years but one that I didn’t know about is the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, in Glen Cove on Long Island’s North Shore.
At the center, there is a memorial (created in 1998 by Jolanta Zamecka) dedicated to the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered in the Shoah. In 2019, an amphitheater for outdoor workshops and events was completed and memorial stanchions installed. On the entrance to the memorial and the stanchions are butterflies.
Why was the butterfly was chosen to represent the Holocaust?
• • •
Butterflies symbolize transformation, hope, and rebirth. As seen in the poem “The Butterfly,” by Pavel Friedmann, a butterfly represents the beauty and freedom that was ripped from those who were murdered during the Holocaust. Friedmann wanted to juxtapose that image of a child’s joy and freedom with connections to a butterfly and the reality of their captivity.
After recognizing the significant role of the butterfly within the Holocaust, the information I was coming across sounded oddly familiar.
Young Ariel Bibas loved butterflies. In his story, history repeats: A young child ripped from his home and murdered just for being Jewish.
All Ariel hoped for at his young age was flying (like Batman, his favorite superhero) and rescuing people from a pit. His freedom was stolen and he was held in captivity.
On April 6, the Academy of Hebrew Languages announced that they renamed the Jerusalem fritillary butterfly (Melitaea ornata) as the Ariel fritillary (in Hebrew, going from Kitmit Yerushalayim (Orange Jerusalem) to Kitmit Ariel (Orange Ariel) to honor the memory of four-year-old Ariel Bibas.
In Tanach, Jerusalem is sometimes referred to as Ariel.
The idea to rename an orange butterfly came from the academy’s zoological committee. The committee has taken it upon themselves the task of giving Hebrew names to all animal life — and insects — that are native to land of Israel.
“The thought of Ariel flying amongst us and adding beauty and color to the world greatly moves us,” the Bibas family shared on social media.
This is one of the countless tributes being done in his memory.
Additionally, with the help of Toys for Hospitalized Children, an organization that gifts toys to bring joy and healing to sick children, they dedicated the Bibas Playroom at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Israel. It’s features orange flowers and butterflies and an image of the Bibas family dog Tonto. The room will have a “digital touch wall,” a gaming table and other play equipment.
The medical center hopes that the playroom will bring joy, comfort, and healing to young patients, in memory of the Bibas family.
“Ariel, Kfir, and Shiri’s memory is especially poignant as Schneider Children’s Hospital helped to triage children returning from captivity in Gaza,” explained Rabb JJ Hecht II, president of Toys for Hospitalized Children. “This playroom symbolizes the strength and resilience of the Jewish community.”
We must continue educating future generations so that history doesn’t repeat itself yet again. Once was unimaginable and a second time was unfathomable.
We must each do all we can to prevent such horrors from happening.
Never again is NOW!
The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, located on the Welwyn Preserve at 100 Crescent Beach Rd. in Glen Cove, is open weekdays 10 am to 4:30 pm, weekends noon to 4 pm. Admission is $10 adults, $5 students and seniors. You can call the museum at 516-571-8040.
Nechama Bluth is assistant for The Jewish Star. Write: nbluth@TheJewishStar.com
