The Holocaust Memorial is adding park managers, partially out of security concerns

There will soon be a new addition to the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza in Center City.

A new permanent booth at the plaza, along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 16th Street, will be staffed seven days a week by a park manager, someone who will greet visitors and teach them about the memorial, while also serving as a deterrent for antisemitic vandalism.

It is meant to “create a more welcoming and safer and cleaner environment” at the site, said Eszter Kutas, executive director of the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation.

Kutas said the foundation is still in the process of hiring two park managers, who will work during the daytime. While she described their role as more like that of a park ranger than outright security, Kutas said that the park managers’ presence is partially a response to an increase of antisemitic incidents and vandalism at the plaza and more generally since the Israel-Hamas war began.

» READ MORE: A swastika was painted near the Holocaust Memorial on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

“In the post-October 7th world, we are seeing more” antisemitic incidents, she said, adding that the plaza will also continue to use its preexisting camera system as a layer of security. Kutas said the park managers are also meant to deter homeless people from setting up at the memorial.

“This is all about improving the visitor experience as the site,” she said.