After months of touting that Ohio’s would be the first Statehouse in the country to have a Holocaust memorial -- it turns out it won’t.
Iowa has already broken ground on a similar memorial, and will dedicate it in October – while construction on Ohio’s memorial hasn’t even started. Joyce Garver Keller is the executive director of Ohio Jewish Communities, which represents Ohio’s eight Jewish federations in Ohio, says she told Governor John Kasich that Ohio’s Statehouse memorial would be the first. But she says, in the end it really doesn’t matter who's first.
JGK: I don't think the issue of being first is really significant or important in any way. This is not about being the first, this is about creating a memorial to help legislators and visitors to the Statehouse understand the history of the Holocaust.
A contract to move the Ohio Holocaust Memorial project forward is expected to be signed any day now. The privately-funded project has generated some controversy – Dick Finan resigned as head of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, saying Kasich’s office was too forceful in pushing the project and the board was losing its independence.