The central Holocaust Day ceremony in Israel will be held this evening at Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem. The traditional public ceremony will feature the participation of President Moshe Katzav and Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as well as Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger. The theme of this year's commemorations is, "The Human Spirit in the Shadow of Death."
Tomorrow morning at 10 AM, two minutes of silence will be observed while a siren is sounded across the country. The "Every Person has a Name" ceremony will begin at 11:00 in the Knesset, during which the names of the Holocaust victims will be read aloud. Other memorial ceremonies will be held tonight and tomorrow.
Meanwhile, this past Friday in New York, the Islamic Thinkers Society held a threatening anti-Semitic rally outside the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan. Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism reports that members of the Islamic Thinkers Society carried signs reading “Islam will Dominate” with a picture of an Islamic flag over the White House. Emerson wrote that the members of the group are "easily identified by their Khilafah flags and provocative signs as well as rhetoric against homosexuals, Jews, Christians, Danes and others."
In addition, the group chanted threatening slogans such as,
"Israeli Zionists, What do you say? The real Holocaust is on its way! ... Allahu Akbar!... Israeli Zionists, What do you say? How many women have you raped today? ... Zionists, Zionists You will pay! The Wrath of Allah is on its way! The mushroom cloud is on its way! The real Holocaust is on its way! ... We will not accept the United Nations, they are the criminals themselves... We know many government services are watching us, such as the FBI…CIA…Mossad, Homeland Security… May the FBI burn in Hell CIA burn in Hell, Mossad burn in Hell, Homeland Security burn in hell! ... Islam will dominate the world, Islam is the only solution!"
Violent anti-Semitism around the world dropped in 2005, but still stands at a high rate compared to previous years. There were 406 violent anti-Semitic acts in 2005 nearly 20% lower than in 2004, but still among the highest of the past 15 years.
Over 5,000 Jewish youth will be taking part in the annual March of the Living in Poland tomorrow. The three-kilometer march between Birkenau and Auschwitz commemorates the Death Marches that the Nazis forced Jews to take along that very route in the 1940's; tens of thousands of Jews perished in three of these Death Marches. MK Shimon Peres, who is leading the Israeli delegation, visited the birthplace of David Ben-Gurion in Slotzk, Poland, today.
The March of the Living was originally initiated by Avraham Hirschson, who has been tapped by Acting Prime Minister Olmert to become Israel's next Finance Minister. The event was designed as a loud proclamation that "Am Yisrael Chai" - the People of Israel still live, and many of the young people taking part in the march will travel from there to Israel to take part in Independence Day festivities. This will enable them to experience first-hand the modern-day rebirth of the Jewish People and see the country that arose on the ashes of the European destruction.
Some 250,000 survivors of the Holocaust arrived in Israel after the war and enlisted in the effort to establish the State of Israel.
Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev issued a statement praising the survivors, who, he said, "fought for their lives in the shadow of death and became eye witnesses and activists, reminding us constantly of our obligation to preserve our own humanity. These survivors, who gave so much to the establishment and growth of the State of Israel, are our example and our model. Israeli society has an ethical duty today to honor the Holocaust survivors, to embrace them and to take care of their welfare in the twilight of their days.”
Tomorrow morning at 10 AM, two minutes of silence will be observed while a siren is sounded across the country. The "Every Person has a Name" ceremony will begin at 11:00 in the Knesset, during which the names of the Holocaust victims will be read aloud. Other memorial ceremonies will be held tonight and tomorrow.
Meanwhile, this past Friday in New York, the Islamic Thinkers Society held a threatening anti-Semitic rally outside the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan. Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism reports that members of the Islamic Thinkers Society carried signs reading “Islam will Dominate” with a picture of an Islamic flag over the White House. Emerson wrote that the members of the group are "easily identified by their Khilafah flags and provocative signs as well as rhetoric against homosexuals, Jews, Christians, Danes and others."
In addition, the group chanted threatening slogans such as,
"Israeli Zionists, What do you say? The real Holocaust is on its way! ... Allahu Akbar!... Israeli Zionists, What do you say? How many women have you raped today? ... Zionists, Zionists You will pay! The Wrath of Allah is on its way! The mushroom cloud is on its way! The real Holocaust is on its way! ... We will not accept the United Nations, they are the criminals themselves... We know many government services are watching us, such as the FBI…CIA…Mossad, Homeland Security… May the FBI burn in Hell CIA burn in Hell, Mossad burn in Hell, Homeland Security burn in hell! ... Islam will dominate the world, Islam is the only solution!"
Violent anti-Semitism around the world dropped in 2005, but still stands at a high rate compared to previous years. There were 406 violent anti-Semitic acts in 2005 nearly 20% lower than in 2004, but still among the highest of the past 15 years.
Over 5,000 Jewish youth will be taking part in the annual March of the Living in Poland tomorrow. The three-kilometer march between Birkenau and Auschwitz commemorates the Death Marches that the Nazis forced Jews to take along that very route in the 1940's; tens of thousands of Jews perished in three of these Death Marches. MK Shimon Peres, who is leading the Israeli delegation, visited the birthplace of David Ben-Gurion in Slotzk, Poland, today.
The March of the Living was originally initiated by Avraham Hirschson, who has been tapped by Acting Prime Minister Olmert to become Israel's next Finance Minister. The event was designed as a loud proclamation that "Am Yisrael Chai" - the People of Israel still live, and many of the young people taking part in the march will travel from there to Israel to take part in Independence Day festivities. This will enable them to experience first-hand the modern-day rebirth of the Jewish People and see the country that arose on the ashes of the European destruction.
Some 250,000 survivors of the Holocaust arrived in Israel after the war and enlisted in the effort to establish the State of Israel.
Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev issued a statement praising the survivors, who, he said, "fought for their lives in the shadow of death and became eye witnesses and activists, reminding us constantly of our obligation to preserve our own humanity. These survivors, who gave so much to the establishment and growth of the State of Israel, are our example and our model. Israeli society has an ethical duty today to honor the Holocaust survivors, to embrace them and to take care of their welfare in the twilight of their days.”