Barbara Turkeltaub has given variations of the same speech 100 times, but no matter how often she tells the story of her escape from the Holocaust, it never fails to leave her audience in tears. When she spoke two years ago, on May 4, 2011, at the 31st annual Ohio Statehouse Holocaust Remembrance Event, it led to a different conclusion.
At that time, Turkeltaub—who is 80, blonde, and looks a little like Martha Stewart—stood at the Rotunda stage in a black suit, with a white scarf knotted neatly at her neck. She looked out at the audience of Ohio dignitaries and constituents and began to tell her story: Born in Vilna in 1934
| Barbara Turkeltaub from Canton, OH was born in 1932 and has been a registered voter since 07/26/1965. | |
VOTER DETAILS | |
| Full Name | Barbara Turkeltaub |
| Year of Birth | 1932 |
| Registration Date | 07/26/1965 |
to a seamstress and an accountant, Turkeltaub was a happy child, blissfully ignorant of the war raging around her—until her family was herded to the ghetto in 1940. To save Barbara and her younger sister, Turkeltaub’s father paid off the family’s former milkman to take in the girls. But the man’s wife, fearing for her family’s life, told her husband to turn the girls over to the Gestapo.
“We cannot pretend we do not see, we do not hear, we do not know,” she said. “We need to take a stand, because history can repeat itself. It can happen to any group of people.”
When Turkeltaub finished, Gov. John Kasich stood up to speak. As he arrived at the microphone and looked at the still-tearful audience, the governor seemed to suddenly go off-script: “The National Holocaust Museum [is] not good enough for Ohio,” Kasich said of the museum in Washington, D.C. “We need to have a remembrance in the statehouse. … Let’s put a program together, let’s construct something in this rotunda that can teach people about man’s inhumanity to man, best exemplified by what happened in the Holocaust.”
Sitting in the audience, Kasich’s staffers and Holocaust Remembrance Day organizers shot each other puzzled looks. The announcement was completely unexpected. But the audience began to applaud, and Democratic Rep. Steve Slesnickenthusiastically joined in.
“I immediately started thinking, ‘How are we going to do this?’ ” Slesnick told me. “As one of two Jewish members in the Ohio legislature, I felt it was my responsibility to help champion this through.”
But across the aisle, former Republican Sen. Richard Finan had a completely different reaction to the governor’s remarks. He was seething. “I’m sitting there thinking, ‘You can’t do this,’ ” Finan told me last week. “You have to submit an application for the memorial. You can’t just bypass all these regulations.”
Thus, the great Ohio Holocaust Memorial debate began.
Kasich’s decision to put a memorial in the statehouse was unprecedented: There are no Holocaust memorials at any other statehouse in the country. It was also technically illegal. In order for any kind of changes to be made to the Ohio statehouse grounds, it has to first pass through the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, which controls the house grounds. The last monument to be approved was a statue of William McKinley about 100 years ago.
CJN EXCLUSIVE: Treasurer Mandel makes largest such purchase in United States history
Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel has purchased $42 million in Israel Bonds, the largest single government purchase of Israel Bonds in United States history. The purchase was completed March 1. Mandel’s office in Columbus announced it to the Cleveland Jewish News that day. “We believe this is a sound investment for the taxpayers of Ohio and consistent with our strategy of investing in safe and strong securities,” Mandel said in a telephone interview March 4. The investment increases the total amount of Israel Bonds in the Ohio treasury portfolio to more than $80 million, the largest amount of Israel bonds held by an Ohio treasurer, according to information provided by Mandel’s office. “During our administration, we’ve managed to earn a ‘AAA’ credit rating on our multibillion-dollar STAR investment fund, as well as earning the first upgrade in a decade on the Ohio Enterprise Bond Fund,” Mandel said. “This investment fits into the strategy that has produced positive results for us over the past couple years.” Mandel, a 1996 Beachwood High School graduate, has served as Ohio treasurer since January 2011. He and his wife, Ilana Shafran Mandel, live in Beachwood. “This investment was made possible by bipartisan leadership in the state legislature,” Mandel said. “I credit the leaders on both sides of the aisle for enabling our office to make this investment.” Michael Siegal, a member of the Israel Bonds national board of directors and former national chairman of Israel Bonds, said the corporation is “thrilled” that Ohio would take the lead among a number of states that are purchasing Israel Bonds.>>>MORE<<<
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