Just over a month ago we opened the Central Valley Holocaust Memorial at the Chabad Jewish Community Center in southwest Bakersfield.
The cornerstone of the physical memorial is the collection of six million buttons, all of varying size, shapes and colors, donated by individuals from across the country. This collection makes tangible, in some ways, the magnitude of loss during the Holocaust. It is also a potent reminder of what is at stake when countering prejudice and intolerance. Each button represents a unique individual — a father, a mother; a daughter, a son; a tailor, a writer; a student, a teacher.
