MARGARET & LOU SCHWARTZ BUTTERFLY GARDEN HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
The Margaret and Lou Schwartz Butterfly Garden Holocaust Memorial honors the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust. The sculpture, designed by local artist Paul Rousso, is adorned with almost 6,000 ceramic butterflies created by Charlotte faith, school and community groups. After the sculpture was dedicated in May of 2011, the garden was expanded to include a seating area, plantings and an Inspirational Pathway incorporating relevant quotes, and additional butterflies were added to the sculpture. The garden is located adjacent to the entrance to the Blumenthal Education Building.
The Butterfly Project is a worldwide Holocaust Remembrance program created by educator Jan Landau and artist Cheryl Rattner Price in San Diego, California, in 2006. The Butterfly Project was developed to honor and remember the 1.5 million child victims of the Holocaust by painting a ceramic butterfly in memory of each child. The project was inspired by the poem, The Butterfly, written by Pavel Friedmann while he was living in the Theresienstadt ghetto, before he was deported to Auschwitz where he died in his early 20s, as well as the documentary Paper Clips, about a middle school project in Tennessee used to help students gauge the magnitude of the Holocaust. The concept was brought to Charlotte in 2008, and evolved into its current format by the Sandra and Leon Levine Jewish Community Center in 2011 – a 2 ½ hour workshop attended by middle school students as a field trip to Shalom Park in Charlotte, NC.
In addition to honoring and remembering the child victims of the Holocaust, the Levine JCC Butterfly Project workshops aim to help combat anti-Semitism, indifference, and Holocaust denial through educational workshops that personalize the history for each participant. The goal of the project is to create 1.5 million ceramic butterflies, worldwide. Since the inception of the project in Charlotte in 2008, more than 53,500 ceramic butterflies have been painted by the greater Charlotte community.
Levine JCC staff and volunteers lead educational workshops about the Holocaust and tolerance for approximately 6,000 students annually (from private and public schools), civic and religious groups in Mecklenburg County and beyond. To make it personal for participants, those who paint a ceramic butterfly receive a certificate with the name of a child who died in the Holocaust.
For more information about the Levine JCC Butterfly Project or to participate in a workshop, please contact butterflyproject@charlottejcc.org.
