Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Long Beach community gathered last Sunday to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, and the two days of destruction that started it all, Kristallnacht — the Night of Broken Glass.
“I have had a lot of friends and parents who have perished from the Holocaust,” attendee Eileen Pollis said. “That’s why I’m here.”
The annual memorial, at City Hall, drew nearly 100 people. Kristallnacht was a state-led series of attacks on Jewish neighborhoods and businesses across Austria, Germany and the Sudetenland, in northwestern Czechoslovakia, on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938.
State Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, Assemblyman Ari Brown, Nassau County Legislator Patrick Mullaney, City Council President Brendan Finn and City Manager Daniel Creighton all spoke at the event, as did former longtime Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg.
“In this ceremony, we know our shared responsibility is to speak out, to educate and to ensure that ‘never again’ is not merely a slogan,” Creighton said.
The commemoration began with members of Jewish War Veterans holding the American and Israeli flags for the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by “The Star-Spangled Banner” and Israel’s national anthem, “Hativka.”
“I am here today to help,” said Gary Glick, a Jewish war veteran. “Nobody knows who we are as U.S. Jewish war veterans because we have been forgotten.”
Rabbi Eli Goodman, of Chabad of the Beaches, offered an invocation that touched on the Holocaust and how the Jewish community continues to move forward. “May we transform together the broken glass of yesterday into the windows of passion from which future generations can see a world redeemed,” Goodman said.
The speakers expressed their solidarity with the Jewish community.
“My mother was a little girl, and she’s no longer here with us in this world, and she was one of the younger generations,” Brown said. “We say, ‘It should never happen again,’ but there isn’t going to be anybody left to represent what is happening.”
Keynote speaker Warren Vegh’s speech was an ode to his late father, Maurice, a Holocaust survivor.
“I’m here today to honor my dad and the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust,” Vegh said. “The whole theme is that we never forget. You never forget the Holocaust. There’s less and less survivors that are around now. That’s why this is so important, and why I will be speaking through the eyes of my dad.”
“As the daughter and granddaughter of survivors, all things against antisemitism are very important to me,” attendee Esther Langer said.
Nine candles were lit in honor of Holocaust victims.
“It’s important to be an advocate for your own community,” attendee Ricky Ehrlich said.
Attendees stood together, and the ceremony ending with a pledge to never forget the victims and atrocities of the Holocaust, and a recitation of “El Malei Rachamim,” a prayer sung at Jewish memorials in remembrance of the dead.
“May today’s gathering remind us that remembrance is not an ode, it’s a mission,” Goodman said.
“We need to always stand up and speak out for our community,” Creighton said. “History always seems to repeat itself when people forget.”
