Yad Vashem
Yad VashemEliran Aharon
The Fifth World Holocaust Forum, entitled “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism,” organized by the World Holocaust Forum Foundation in cooperation with Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, will take place on 23 January 2020 at the Warsaw Ghetto Square in Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.

The Forum, marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and International Holocaust Remembrance Day, will begin at 13:30.

At the invitation of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, over forty presidents, prime ministers and royal households from Europe, North America and Australia, will attend the World Holocaust Forum.

The event program will include addresses from a number of world leaders, including President Rivlin, Israeli President Binyamin Netanyahu, French President Emmanuel Macron, Prince of Wales HRH Prince Charles, Russian President Vladimir Putin, a senior leader from the US, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Holocaust survivor and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau as well as Forum organizers President of the World Holocaust Forum Foundation Dr. Moshe Kantor and Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, will also speak at the event.

Interspersed throughout the proceedings there will be several short video clips and musical interludes performed by an international orchestra conducted by world renowned conductor Vladimir Spivakov accompanied by an international choir.

The event will conclude with a memorial ceremony. Holocaust survivors Rose Moskowitz, from the United States, and Colette Avital, Chairperson of the Central Organization of Holocaust Survivors in Israel will light a memorial torch, after which heads of delegations will commemorate victims of the Holocaust by laying wreaths at the base of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Monument in Warsaw Ghetto Square at Yad Vashem.

Cantor Shai Abramson will recite the El Maleh Rahamim memorial prayer, followed by Holocaust survivor Naftali Deutsch who will say Kaddish, the mourner's prayer. The ceremony will conclude with Israel's national anthem, Hatikvah.

The World Holocaust Forum will be broadcast live via satellite feed worldwide and via Yad Vashem's website and Facebook page. The broadcast will be translated simultaneously to six languages – English, Hebrew, French, German, Russian and Spanish.