Boston’s Holocaust Memorial Has Been Fixed

PHOTO BY LLOYD MALLISON

Two weeks after one of its panels was smashed with a rock, Boston’s Holocaust Memorial has been fixed. It will be rededicated in a ceremony on Tuesday, officials say.

On June 28, city and state politicians, along with Jewish community leaders condemned the act of vandalism targeting one of the city’s most iconic memorials, which is dedicated to the millions of victims of the Nazis and designed to evoke imagery of crematorium smokestacks.

A suspect, 21-year-old James Isaac, of Roxbury, has been charged. His lawyer has said he suffers from mental health issues.

Officials said backup glass panels had been kept in storage since the memorial was erected in 1995, just in case any needed to be replaced. In more than 20 years, until now, that’s never been necessary.

The rededication ceremony on Tuesday is open to the public and scheduled for 1-1:30 p.m., rain or shine, the Combined Jewish Philanthropies, which oversees the memorial, wrote on its website. The act of vandalism, the CJP says, caused “both physical damage as well as great pain to our local community.”

Gov. Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, and others are expected to attend, and speakers will include Holocaust survivors. “Together, they will echo the sentiments expressed by so many last week: our community is strong, we stand together to help each other, and we reject hatred,” the CJP says.

“Hatred may have destroyed the first memorial, but we won’t let it stop us from remembering,” Mayor Marty Walsh’s campaign wrote on Twitter.