New Calgary Gan HaZikaron includes a memorial to victims of the October 7 massacre

by Irena Karshenbaum, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

(AJNews) – In the early morning hours of October 7, 2023, which fell on Shabbat as well as Simchat Torah, Calgarian, David Wallach, and his wife, Zohar, were still asleep in their Tel Aviv hotel room when they were awoken by explosions. The day that followed was consumed with the couple running to a nearby bomb shelter as the city was pounded by rockets and where just a block away a building was struck, injuring four people.

Wallach recounted the incident at the unveiling ceremony, held on August 23, 2026, of the new Gan HaZikaron (translated as, Garden of Remembrance) that has been built adjacent to the Erlton Jewish Cemetery in Calgary.

He remembered the early days of the war when Israel “was in complete chaos.” The Israeli government was “paralyzed” while the army was “trying to get organized” and was calling in reservists.

The act of war, however, did galvanize the people of Israel, as Wallach explained, “There were no Sephardim or Ashkenazim, there were no Liberals or Conservatives, there were no Charedim or Mesoratim or Chilonim. The country became a united nation demonstrating the old Talmudic saying, ‘All of Israel are responsible for each other.’”

The Gan HaZikaron project, located on a parcel of land where a dilapidated house once stood, was chaired by Dr. Darryl Gurevitch. It includes a donation of the Shattered into Light memorial sculpture gifted to honour “in a significant way” his parents, Dr. Ralph and Sheila Gurevitch, by him, his siblings, Illana Morton and Dr. Jason Gurevitch, and their families.

Speaking at the unveiling, Gurevitch explained, “Our parents have been active, contributing, long-standing members of our community. For many years they have supported many, both Jewish and non-Jewish, organizations and have volunteered countless hours to our community and the greater Calgary community.”

He continued saying, his parents have always loved art and sculpture, but, “After the horrors of October 7, 2023, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, [we] felt that a memorial sculpture to October 7, was more fitting and timely for the space than just a really nice piece of art.”

Shattered into Light is enclosed by a landscaped reflective garden and was created by Charles Sherman, a Los-Angeles-based artist, whose works are held by the San Diego Museum of Art and Cedar-Sinai Hospital Galleries in Los Angeles and can be found in public spaces in Beverly Hills, Palm Desert and other cities across California.

Made of Corten steel, Gurevitch described poetically, “Steel is strong, but it weathers. It changes. Its rust is not a flaw – it becomes part of the sculpture. And it bleeds. The rust becomes a record of time. The broken forms become something that rises. And the light that touches them reminds us that even in the presence of darkness, light remains.”

“The three forms rise unequal, imperfect, and each different from the other,” he continued. “They are not meant to represent three separate stories. Rather, together they represent the many lives, families, communities, and dreams that were shattered – and the human spirit and light that continues to rise from that devastation.”

Gurevitch read a note by Charles Sherman written for the unveiling ceremony describing his work, “The sculpture is what I call a Miracle Tower, because it evokes both the miracle of flight and the human desire to rise above tragedy. Technically, it is composed of three pyramids, with each face forming a triangle, the geometry long associated with strength, balance, and an enduring connection between the core of the earth and the heavens above.”

The Shattered into Light memorial sculpture is only the third permanent memorial to the October 7 massacre anywhere in the world. The first being in Humble, Texas and the second in Sydney, Australia.

An archway into the garden was created by industrial designer, Elliott Steinberg, and donated by the Ruth Dvorkin family in memory of her late husband, Norman Dvorkin.

Gurevitch described Steinberg’s design as, “Comprised of stylized trees that also had a Jewish component of a mezuzah, symbolized by the large letter Sheen, which also acts as the centre of the trees. The garden theme is continued in the overhead signage, with stylized flowers.”

A donor board for the entire Gan HaZikaron project will be unveiled in the near future and will live in the Chevra Kadisha of Calgary chapel on 37 Street SW.

The Gan HaZikaron project committee included Louis Bracey, Halley Girvitz, Scott Siemens, the Chevra Kadisha of Calgary facilities manager, and co-presidents, Harold Lipton and Susan Dvorkin.

Lipton and Dvorkin recounted the history of the Erlton Jewish Cemetery that was founded in 1904 after the tragic passing of the infant, Goldie Bell. The early Jewish community was then propelled to purchase land that became its first cemetery and which over the last one hundred and twenty years has become nearly full.

Lipton and Dvorkin explained that when this section of the grounds became available and it was decided that no new grave plots would be added to the cemetery, it would be designated instead as, “A reflective garden where visitors could come, reconnect with people, and reminisce over their departed loved ones who were resting nearby.”

Soon after the planning for the reflective garden had begun, the co-presidents continued, “Another calamity that many deem the most deadly since the Holocaust,” occurred and, “It was decided that this new garden should also be the place where we should build a memorial to those who perished on October 7 and in the weeks that followed.”

Louis Bracey, Lifetime Honourary Chair of the Chevra Kadisha of Calgary, read a new version of the Kel Maleh Rachamim prayer that was written shortly after the October 7 massacre by Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

The memorial prayer dates back one thousand years, as Bracey explained, and honours the destruction of both Temples, the Crusades and other tragedies inflicted upon the Jewish people over the centuries. Mirvis’s version prays for the men, women and children “who were murdered in the terror attacks of Shemini Atzeret and the days that followed” and “the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces who sacrificed their lives for the sanctity of God in defence of our people.”

Irena Karshenbaum writes in Calgary. irenakarshenbaum.com