Bakersfield Chabad Creating a Holocaust Memorial Out of Six Million Buttons Cynthia Fischer always had a dream: She wanted to create a Holocaust memorial out of six million buttons she’d collected herself and from others over 10 years. However, she couldn’t quite figure out how to do it. That all changed in 2020, when Fischer met Rabbi Shmuel Schlanger, director of her local Chabad Jewish Community Center in Bakersfield. Fischer had been sending her grandchild to the Chabad every Sunday to learn in the Hebrew school, which is on an idyllic campus at 6901 Ming Avenue. “Cynthia loved the look of our place and asked us if we were interested in making her dream a reality,” Rabbi Schlanger told the Journal. “We have a community center that used to be a tennis club, and it’s very pretty. She felt this would be the best place for it. We thought it was a great idea.”