Holocaust Reflection Garden Restoration — Bet Shalom Congregation

by Jodi Upin, Mike Siskin and Samantha Kushins

Dr. Fred Lyon was a young boy in a very established Berlin family in November of 1938. His father, the president of their synagogue, tried to ward off the Nazis and protect the Torahs on Kristallnacht, the horrific night of massive pogroms in November 1938. Realizing their bleak future in Germany, in 1939 the family escaped and made their way to the United States.

Fred and Naomi Lyon eventually settled in Minneapolis. They were one of the founding families of Bet Shalom and were active members of our community for many years.

As he aged and reflected on his life, Lyon wanted a place of quiet and serenity where our community could remember and pay homage to the victims of the Holocaust.

Rabbi Norman Cohen, the senior rabbi at that time, recalls having extensive conversations with Fred throughout the process of creating such a space. He says that Fred spoke deeply and emotionally about his childhood in Nazi Germany and provided a DVD of his testimony for Steven Spielberg’s interviews of Holocaust survivors. Lyon was devoted to the idea that a Holocaust Reflection Garden be created at his synagogue, the one in which he played such a significant role from the start. For him, his Holocaust experience was like a torch that had been passed to him that he carried from one Jewish community to another.

Bet Shalom’s leadership embraced the idea of the Holocaust Reflection Garden and went to work. Jodi Upin, a family friend of the Lyons and then-President of Bet Shalom, worked with the family to choose the space on the northwest corner of the property and design the principal elements of the garden. Tom Silver z"l, a past President, hired the landscape architect to create the space. They raised the necessary funds with a lead gift from the Lyons and money from the cemetery fund.

Names visible on plaque, and national flowers of countries with concentration camps

The garden was dedicated in October of 2009 with Fred and Naomi in attendance. The centerpiece of the garden is a memorial stone where the names of loved ones who were victims of the holocaust are inscribed. There are six stone seats to sit on, representing the six million victims of the Holocaust, and flowers beautify the area.

Dr. Lyon passed away shortly thereafter in February 2010, so ironically he did not have much time to sit in the garden he so passionately desired. But as Rabbi Norman Cohen said at the time, “At Bet Shalom Congregation [Fred] was a moving spirit behind the creation of the Holocaust Reflection Garden, whose Inscription Rock was dedicated this past October. The garden has lit a flame that has the potential to drive away much darkness." Today he adds, “The garden has been visited by strangers and neighbors, who sometimes leave notes of respect and honor and flowers and stones on the memorial where the names are inscribed. This is much like the custom at Jewish cemeteries (which became a popular question asked of rabbis following the film Schindler’s List) in which the ending showed people doing that at Schindler’s grave in Jerusalem. It has become more than a private congregational site for reflection and meditation. Our community is touched that this unintended consequence has been a source of outreach to the community.”

The garden was tended for many years by Bet Shalom’s volunteer Landscaping Committee led by Jeff Upin. A few years after the garden was completed, in keeping with Bet Shalom’s inclusion commitment and led by Sharon Palay, an accessible path to the garden was laid.

Over time, if a garden is unattended it gets overgrown. So it was with our Holocaust Reflection Garden. The Landscaping Committee participation dwindled, and eventually nobody was taking care of the grounds.

In the spring of 2026, Mara Locketz and Michael Siskin revived the Landscaping Committee and brought out the shovels to work to improve the synagogue's landscaping. They were excited to learn that Samantha Kushins, a teenager at Bet Shalom, also had Bet Shalom landscaping plans for this spring. Samantha provided a major clean up and improvement plan for the Holocaust Reflection Garden as part of her Eagle Scout Service Work project. She designed the plans, put a team in place, and successfully showed her leadership skills with this important and creative effort. She had to revise the initial plan due to the limited selection of specific plants locally.

Mara came up with the idea to recognize the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust with the national flowers of the countries in which there were concentration camps, and Michael designed and installed the commemorative signage. Michael, Mara and Samantha's friends and family all played major roles in this makeover after many years of neglect.

Samantha comments: “I chose to work with Bet Shalom on my project to give back to the community that so graciously welcomed me and my family upon our move to the Twin Cities area in 2020. When I received Holocaust education in eighth grade through HaMakom at Bet Shalom, my class took a trip to the Holocaust Reflection Garden, and I couldn’t help but notice its dilapidated condition. Having just joined Scouting America with my sights set on achieving the Eagle rank, I had my eye on the garden for my future [Eagle Scout service] project.

“After purchasing and borrowing needed materials and tools, I reached out to members of Bet Shalom Temple Youth (BeSTY) and scouts in Troop 123 to organize volunteers to work on the project over the course of two weekends. Volunteers aided in weeding, edging, planting, and fertilizing the garden under my supervision. Overall, the total number of service hours completed by volunteers amounted to over 150 hours.

“Seeing my community show up to give back to Bet Shalom has made me recognize that the difference between an uninvolved group of people and an invigorated crowd is simply an opportunity to show up for what they care about. I am so grateful that I was able to [lead] such a committed group of volunteers.”

You are invited to come any time to pause and reflect in this serene and beautiful space.

If you have a loved one who was a victim of the Holocaust and would like to have their name inscribed on the memorial stone, please contact Rabbi Locketz at Bet Shalom.

Since the Landscaping Committee is currently only two people, we need help. Please reach out to Michael Siskin if you would like to help or be on the committee, even to help one afternoon to pull weeds or plant at msiskin2@gmail.com or 612-723-3870.