Remembrance Ceremony
A Message from the 9-11 Memorial Garden of Reflection, Inc:
Remembrance in Light, 25 Years Later
For most of The Garden’s history, families who lost loved ones on September 11th have gathered on 5th-year milestone anniversary for an evening “Remembrance in Light” candlelight ceremony. It was created for family members who find the morning ceremony, which marks the chronological unfolding of that day and the time their loved ones were taken from us, too painful to relive. The evening ceremony offers something different: a peaceful close to the day, set apart for reflection, unity, and remembrance with family members and our community.
The Garden’s motto, After Darkness…Light, is not just words on a plaque. It is the emotional center of this ceremony. As the sun sets announcing the darkness, the community gathers for song, prayer, and the lighting of candles, ending as the fountains rise and illuminate the heart of the memorial bringing in the light. For many families, this is where healing happens and provides a sense of unity, of hope, of finding light after unimaginable darkness.
What happened this year
The previous Township Board of Supervisors agreed years ago that a nighttime Remembrance in Light ceremony would be held every 5th anniversary. As we planned for the 25th, we expected that promise to be kept.
On March 17, 2026, the Township denied our first permit, stating it needed to “be mindful” of Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown on September 11th this year. Then 911 family and community members attended a Board of Supervisors meeting on March 18th to ask that the denial be reconsidered. We were directed instead to a wait for a recommendation from the township 9/11 ceremony committee. But before any recommendations from the committee were presented, the township suggested a Sept 10th ceremony and prohibited a September 11th Remembrance in Light ceremony which historically started at 7PM.
The township 911 event committee met for the first time on March 31, 2026. At that meeting, a Board of Supervisors who was not a member of the committee attended and proposed moving the evening ceremony to September 10th the night before the actual anniversary instead of September 11th. All committee members opposed this.
Rather than accept a ceremony on another abstract night, GOR applied for a second time for its own resident permit to hold the Remembrance in Light on the evening of September 11th, structured so it would not conflict with any Township event.
In the months that followed, family and community members continued to attend Board of Supervisor meetings and presented pleas for the promised Remembrance in Light ceremony. Many family members wrote letters to the board of supervisors asking for the board to reconsider its decision and allow the ceremony. Two rabbis wrote letters in support of holding the ceremony on the actual anniversary.
The Township denied GOR’s permit a second time this time on the grounds that our ceremony would be “incompatible” with the Township’s own newly created early evening event.
It is worthy to note that there was only one other time Rosh Hashanah coincided with September 11th. That was in 2018 when Rosh Hashanah started at sundown on September 9 and went through sundown September 11th. There were both a morning and a night ceremony that year which were held during Rosh Hashanah at The Garden of Reflection. The township had no objection that year.
Why we believe this was unlawful
This is not our legal opinion alone. On July 24, 2026, the ACLU of Pennsylvania sent a formal letter to the Township’s solicitor on GOR’s behalf, laying out why this denial violates our First Amendment rights.
The Garden is a Township-owned park, what courts call a “traditional public forum,” the same category of public space as a street or a town square, where the government’s power to restrict expression is sharply limited. Any restriction has to be neutral, narrowly tailored to a real government interest, and has to leave open other ways for that same expression to happen. The ACLU’s letter argues the Township’s actions fail on every count:
- The Township never explained how our ceremony, held miles from the nearest synagogue, would interfere with anyone’s ability to observe Rosh Hashanah.
- The Township ran its own multi-day “Eggstravaganza” Easter egg hunt during Passover this year, at parks near synagogues, without incident, undercutting any claim that religious observance requires banning any events within the township.
- Two rabbis wrote in support of proceeding with the ceremony. Rabbi Yonah Gross of the Coalition for Jewish Values wrote that a remembrance and reflection event is fully in keeping with the spirit of the holiday, and that using Rosh Hashanah to justify the Township’s decision was, in his words, unfair and counterproductive.
- Having first cited the holiday, and then pivoted to citing its own competing event as the reason for denial, the Township left our families no alternative time or place to hold this ceremony at all.
What this means for families
The Township will proceed with a morning ceremony and early evening event, which they stated is expected to include remarks from political figures, several of whom are running for office this cycle, over the objections of the family members who asked, repeatedly and in writing, for the evening ceremony they were promised. Lower Makefield Township lost 9 residents on September 11th, the most of any municipality in Pennsylvania per capita. Bucks County lost 18. Pennsylvania lost 58. The Garden of Reflection is designated by the Commonwealth as The Official State Memorial to the Victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The morning ceremony serves an important purpose for many families. But it does not serve the purpose the Remembrance in Light was designed for. For the families who have leaned on this ceremony for years, this loss is not administrative. It is personal. These are people who have already given up more than anyone should have to give up. Being told, in the year that marked their loss a quarter of a century later, that the one evening set aside for them will not happen, has been devastating to hear, and we have heard that devastation directly, in letters, at Board meetings, and in conversations with the families themselves.
Why we are not pursuing this in court this year at this time
The ACLU requested a meeting with the Township to resolve this matter. The Township waited until after its August 5th board of supervisor meeting to respond, accepted the meeting request.
We are sharing all of this now, with the ACLU’s knowledge and support, because our community deserves the full picture, not just the outcome. (See letter below.)
We want to be direct about why the Remembrance in Light will not happen this year. We were left with too little time to pursue legal action and still plan a ceremony worthy of what this milestone anniversary deserves. We also made a deliberate choice: we did not want to spend the month of September in court, and we did not want to place an undue financial burden on the residents of this township, the same residents who have stood beside us and supported this memorial for twenty years since its dedication, over a decision made by their elected officials, not by them. That is not who we are, and it is not how we choose to honor the people this memorial exists for.
So, we made the harder choice. We gave up this ceremony this year, not because it was right, but because it was the only choice left to us that protected both this community and the dignity of the families we serve.
Our focus has always been, and remains, on remembrance, not division. But we believe our community deserves to understand why a promise, made to the families who depend on it, will not be honored this year.
We remain committed to the dignity, memory, and voice of 9/11 families, and we will continue working to ensure they can gather in meaningful ways in the years ahead.
Thank you to our community for your continued support, understanding, and respect.
The 9-11 Memorial Garden of Reflection, Inc.
2026.7.24 ACLU/Garden of Reflection, Inc. Letter