The Zion Memorial Park Holocaust Monument in Bedford Heights, Ohio, the oldest monument of its kind in the United States, has received federal protection amid a worrying increase in antisemitism across the country.
The site, which was established in 1961 by Holocaust survivors in Ohio, becomes the first Holocaust memorial outside of Washington DC to be designated a National Holocaust Memorial by members of Congress.
The Kol Israel Foundation, founded in 1959 by Holocaust survivors in Cleveland, described the monument as the oldest Holocaust memorial in the United States.
"This designation of a national memorial ensures that the Holocaust can't be denied. It can't be forgotten," Kol Israel Foundation executive director Hallie Duchon told USA Today.
The site was given the federal designation in the federal omnibus bill that was passed by Congress on December 23.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)