Freedom from Religion Foundation objects to Star of David in Holocaust memorial

Columbus, Ohio:  The Freedom from Religion Foundation wants the proposed Statehouse Holocaust memorial changed by removing what it sees as the Jewish religious symbolism of the Star of David.

In a June 14 letter to Richard H. Finan, chairman of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, two foundation officials said they have no objections to a Holocaust memorial at the Statehouse. However, architect Daniel Libeskind's design includes a cut-out version of a 6-pointed star, usually interepreted as the Star of David, a symbol associated with Judiasm. Arguably, that would be a violation of the separation of church and state set out in the U.S. Constitution, the foundation said.

"Permitting one permanent sectarian and exclusionary religious symbol...would create the legal precedent, for instance, to place an equally large or larger permanent Latin cross on Capitol grounds," wrote Don Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-presidents of the Madison, Wisc., group. They said the Holocaust memorial, as now envisiioned, would amount to a "constitutionally problematic endorsement of religion."

Barker and Gaylor said the memorial, at least syimbolically, excludes 5 million non-Jews killed in the Holocaust, including Roma Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, and others.

Supporters argue that Libeskind's design, which incorporates special wording etched in bronze and stone, respresents all victims of the World War II Holocaust as well as the Ohioans who participated in the liberation of the Nazi death camps.

The Capitol Square board is scheduled to cast a final vote on the memorial Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Statehouse. Dispatch