“Tikkun olam” is a Hebrew phrase that can be translated as “repairing the world,” which describes the mission of the late Rep. Tom Lantos, a California Democrat and the only member of Congress who was a Holocaust survivor.
Those words have become the inspiration behind a new Holocaust memorial that will be built on the University of Denver campus.
On Tuesday, Lantos was honored by members of his family, Holocaust survivors and their families, who joined University of Denver faculty, staff and alumni for a ground dedication of the site of the new Holocaust Memorial, Learning and Social Action center.
The $3.5 million memorial was designed by Lawrence Argent, a professor of art and head of DU’s sculpture department. Argent’s best-known work is the 40-foot-tall “I See What You Mean” sculpture better known as the “Blue Bear” that peers into the Colorado Convention Center.
For inspiration and research, Argent traveled to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland, where he visited historic sites and memorials. The preliminary memorial design features curved granite walls and columns.
“I went to those places to have a focus. I wanted a memorial for a particular moment in time,” Argent said. “The curves are connected in time, essences of who we are as individuals.”
The Holocaust memorial and center will be built between the Penrose Library and Margery Reed Hall on the DU campus and near Buchtel Tower. (The tower is the only remaining section of Buchtel Chapel, which was built in 1910 and destroyed by fire.) So far, nearly $1 million has been raised for the memorial project.
The memorial center will be a place for Holocaust education and social action, said Sarah Pessin, director of DU’s Center for Judaic Studies. The memorial project will have an endowed chair in Holocaust studies.
“In looking back, we can move forward,” Pessin said.
Lantos died in February of cancer. He was a 14-term member of Congress and was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He was born in Budapest, Hungary. He escaped from the Nazis twice but lost his mother and most of his family during the Holocaust. His supporters call him a champion of human rights and point to his work helping oppressed people around the globe.
During the ground dedication Tuesday, the ambassador of Hungary paid tribute to Lantos, along with DU chancellor Robert Coombe and Lantos’ wife, Annette, who was joined by her daughter Annette Tillemann-Dick, wife of the late Timber Dick, a Colorado inventor and director of recruitment for DU.
“Because Tom had the courage to survive,” Annette Lantos said, “the world became a better place.”
Annette Espinoza: 303-954-1655 or aespinoza@denverpost.com
