New York synagogue bids ‘sacred farewell’ to Holocaust memorial by Louise Nevelson

Temple Beth-El in Great Neck, New York, held a farewell ceremony for Louise Nevelson's "The White Flame of the Six Million," a Holocaust memorial bimah sculpture that served the Reform congregation for over 50 years. Demographic shifts reduced membership from 1,500 to 400 families, leading to the sale of the property to an Orthodox yeshiva. The sculpture will be disassembled and donated to a museum.

Temple Beth-El in Great Neck, New York, held a bittersweet farewell ceremony for Louise Nevelson's monumental Holocaust memorial sculpture, "The White Flame of the Six Million," which served as the synagogue's bimah and Torah ark for over 50 years. The deconsecration was driven by profound demographic changes in suburban Long Island: the Reform congregation's membership plummeted from 1,500 families to just 400, leading to the sale of its property to Yeshivat Kol Yaakov, an Iranian/Sephardic Orthodox yeshiva. Beth-El now leases its original chapel from the yeshiva. The sculpture, a 50-foot-long, 11-foot-high white wall piece, was removed from the sanctuary immediately after Yom Kippur prayers in September. On October 1, congregants, joined by Maria Nevelson (the artist's granddaughter) and curators from the Jewish Museum and the North Carolina Museum of Art, bid a "sacred farewell." The synagogue has retained an agent to raise funds for a museum donation. The piece, Nevelson's longest contiguous wall sculpture, was commissioned in 1970 by congregants Wilfred and Rose Cohen. A six-foot model sold for $327,600 at Sotheby's in 2022. The article's narrative voice remains neutral, reporting the event factually through attributed quotes and specific details.