BY ROBERT SCHMELTER Staff Writer

Exhibit commemorates Revolutionary War

and how they inspired him to write the immortal line, These are the times that try mens souls, as published in his The American Crisis. Also on display in the same case, are an equally antiquarian copy of Paines call-to-arms Common Sense, dating back to 1791, and a copy of an introduction written by Thomas Edison for a Paine biography. Edison really idolized Paine, Meyers explained, which adds another dimension to our connection to Paine, given Edisons connection to early filmmaking in New Jersey. Meyers said there will be another Revolutionary War exhibit next year, to coincide with the unveiling of the Thomas Paine statute in Monument Park next fall. Another place of honor in the exhibit is reserved for a Dont Tread on Me flag, which previously resided in the office of the late Mayor Jack Alter. When Fort Lee was first embroiled in the dispute with the

HISTORY

A more than 200-year-old copy of Thomas Paines The American Crisis is one of the highlights of the new exhibit at the Fort Lee Museum on Palisade Avenue. The book, which dates back to 1792, holds a place of honor in a display dedicated to the pamphleteer and war correspondent who worked alongside Gen. Nathanael Greene in Fort Lee in 1776. The display is part of the exhibit, The Revolutionary War in Bergen County: The Times that Tried Mens Souls, which will run through February explained Tom Meyers, executive director of the Fort Lee Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs. This exhibit is a spin off from the recently published book of the same name, edited by Leonias Carol Karels, with a chapter written by Meyers. Meyers chapter discusses Paines experiences in Fort Lee,

Edgewater over the Route 5 lane closure, and the Geico advertisers wanted to put that billboard by the George Washington Bridge, Meyers said, Jack had this flag displayed behind his chair during council meetings to show our towns resilience. When his widow, Joan Alter, cleaned out his office after his passing, she donated the flag back to the town. When we have the Paine statue unveiling next November, Meyers said. Well run that flag up as a tribute to Alter. On display beneath the flag is an original bayonet found during an excavation; alongside it are reproductions of a Revolutionary Warera hatchet and musket. Other excavated items are on STAFF PHOTOS BY ASHLEE WOODRUFF display throughout the exhibit, including spoons, forks, and a sword found by former mayor An original Revolutionary War-era bayonet rests in a display Henry Hoebel when he was a case alongside replicas of a musket and hatchet in the Fort young boy. The location where he Lee Museum. These items are part of the museum exhibit

3 FORT LEE SUBURBANITE DECEMBER 7, 2007

The Revolutionary War in Bergen County: The Times That SEE EXHIBIT, PAGE 15 Tried Mens Souls.

BY ROBERT SCHMELTER Staff Writer

Balcony displays tragedy of the Holocaust

The sculpture depicts the suffering and horrors of Jews in concentration camps during World War II. The display it rests on, explained Berger, was made from the actual wood used on the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz. On the opposite side of the room is another sculpture, by Englewood Cliffs dentist Bruce Freund, shows Jewish detainees of a concentration camp looking out through a barbed wire fence. The sculpture only shows the backs of their heads as they peer through the wire. Nearby, along the same wall, in a display case rests a Torah rescued from Romania. Next to the Torah is a Menorah Light from the Yad Vesham Holocaust memorial in Israel. A column near the front of the balcony displays pictures taken during the Nazi evacuation of the Warsaw ghetto: fail Holocaust survivors as they are liberated from a concentration camp, young Jewish refugees in England before the outbreak of the war; and photos of the Israeli Olympians slain in Munich during the 1972 Olympic games. Other photos show Jewish women being marched to the gas chambers and Gypsy prisoners waiting to be gassed. Attached to the museum is a library, which contains books, written about the Holocaust, including the critically acclaimed graphic novel Maus.

NEW SYNAGOGUE

The rabbi gazed up to the exhibits and displays on the balcony inside the temple at the New Synagogue of Fort Lee. It is not just a place for prayer, he contemplated. It is a place to educate. It is a place to educate about the horrors that mankind can inflict upon itself; the tragedy of hate unchecked. By the time World War II ended, 6 million Jews had lost their lives at the hands of Nazi aggression. They were shot, starved, worked to death and even gassed. Parents were separated from children, husbands from wives, hope from humanity. It is Rabbi Meier Bergers wish that no one forgets the horrors of the Holocaust. He has placed on that balcony a reminder in the form of the Holocaust Museum Library. I had always wanted to create a Holocaust museum, Berger said. When we first built the temple, I thought it would be a good idea to have balcony seating, but we soon realized that you cant see the altar when you are seated up here. At the same time, I didnt want this area to go to waste. Around the same time, local sculptor Leon Madison presented Berger with a statue of the Holocaust. Thats when I knew there was a reason for the balcony, commented Berger.

STAFF PHOTO BY ASHLEE WOODRUFF

SEE HOLOCAUST, PAGE 15 A column of photos depicts the horrors and suffering of the Holocaust.
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