Affiliated Area: David Berger National Memorial, Ohio

Welcome back to our National Parks guide.  This week we are taking a short detour from the official NPS units to give everyone a post about Affiliated Sites.

In addition to the 417 National Park Service Units, there are also several Affiliated Areas.  These sites operate in connection with the National Park Service but are independent entities.  We will also be including these in our blog going forward, starting with the David Berger National Memorial.

Memorial Plaque

BACKGROUND:

               Originally from Shaker Heights, Ohio, David Berger was a young athlete who wished to someday compete in the Olympics as a weightlifter, jumping at the chance to join the Israeli team for the 1972 Olympic games in Munich.  Tragically David Berger would become one of the eleven Israeli athletes who were murdered by terrorists at that year’s Olympics.  Following his death, local leaders of the Cleveland area’s Jewish community financed the building of a memorial to David Berger and his teammates.

THE MEMORIAL:

               The David Berger National Memorial is a metal sculpture that resides on the grounds of the Mandel Jewish Community Center in Beachwood, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb.  The memorial is a metal sculpture made up of eleven columns for its base, and topped with a series of broken rings.  The rings represent the interrupted Olympic games, while the eleven columns stand for David Berger and each of his teammates.

A side view of the sculpture's broken rings

TRAVEL TIPS:

               The David Berger National Memorial is easily accessible as it lies in the open on the community center’s grounds.  There is no fee to see the memorial nor is there a visitor center.  The memorial does participate in the passport stamp program.  To get the stamp you will only need to go inside the community center and inquire at the front desk.

A distant view of the Memorial on the community center grounds

This is our last blog post on a site in the Cleveland area.  From here on we will be moving out across the country further and further from home.  We will continue to intersperse Affiliated Areas in between posts on official NPS units going forward.  Our next blog post will be a special one we've moved up to next week, our first journey to the District of Columbia and the National World War Two Memorial.