Pastor Jack Flournoy, who died in 2019, used to attend a Holocaust remembrance day at a synagogue in Murrieta.
By 2013, only 22 people attended the service. No civic leaders or representatives from youth groups attended.
“Just a few elderly people and the rabbi took the time to remember,” Flournoy wrote in a statement. “The stark reality hit us: If we didn’t do something, the memory of the Holocaust and all those who perished in it would fade into vapor and be gone forever.”
The Holocaust Remembrance Foundation of the Valley, where Flournoy’s message is posted on its website, was created. And an annual March of Remembrance launched in 2014.
The goal is to raise about $450,000 to add a Holocaust Educational Memorial to Murrieta Town Square Park to educate people, especially children, about the tragedy. So far, about $100,000 has been collected. The group’s slogan says it all about the noble purpose: “Out of Despair: Hope.”
Southwest Riverside County has long been known as a bastion for Christians. There was a time when the area was known by some as the Bible Belt of Southern California.
Jewish people have historically called the area home as well.
According to the foundation’s website, a Jewish immigrant, Louis Wolf, helped run the first store in Temecula in the mid-1800s. Later, his store housed the post office. He was active in community and school affairs and given what’s happening with today’s controversial Temecula school board, he might be bewildered.
The city we know today as Lake Elsinore was once filled with kosher meat markets, hot sulfur bath houses and two synagogues. During the 1950s and 1960s, more than 1,000 Jewish residents practiced their faith in town, the website states.
The Murrieta Hot Springs resort was founded in 1902 and old postcards show a large Star of David above the main building’s entryway. It was primarily a Jewish resort, the website states. Once they visited, many moved to the community in mobile home parks built around the resort still there today.
The board that operates the foundation is split between Christians and Jews, reflecting the broad support for the educational project, board President Randy Denham said. Denham is Christian; Irv Michlin, who is Jewish, is vice president.
“Both sides understand the significance of doing something to remember the Holocaust,” Denham said.
He has visited Israel several times and has long been trying to educate today’s youths about the Holocaust.
“I believe that it is truly a historical venture with antisemitism on the rise as well as our youth having limited knowledge of the Holocaust and its importance on society,” he said.
The Murrieta City Council approved the project in 2017. It is planned to be 10 panels, covering events before the Holocaust, the Holocaust itself, and then the history after that event, such as the creation of Israel. There will also be a section devoted to Christians who saved Jews from the Holocaust.
The pandemic stalled fundraising efforts, but Denham and Michlin hope to rebuild momentum for the project.
Michlin said that, at one time, about 25 Holocaust survivors lived in the Murrieta Hot Springs mobile homes. Remarkable.
“They will be honored at the memorial,” he said.
The goal is to start landscaping and other preparation work by the end of this year, he said. “People tend to give more when they see activity on the site.”
Local politicians such as former State Sen. Melissa Melendez, current State Sen. Kelly Seyarto, Riverside County Supervisor Chuck Washington and members of the Murrieta and Temecula city councils, have taken part in events supporting the foundation. Michlin said the support of former Murrieta City Councilmember Jonathan Ingram was especially pivotal.
“The Christian community, if you mention what we are doing, they get excited about what we are doing,” Michlin said.
The March of Remembrance debuted with 175 people. By 2019, before the pandemic, more than 400 took part.
Hopefully such levels of support can be reached again.
Reach Carl Love at [email protected].
