The opening ceremony for Yom HaShoah v’HaGevura (Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day), one of the most solemn days of the national Israeli calendar, began Sunday evening with the lighting of the traditional torch.
The eternal torch at Yad Vashem Memorial Museum burned on the stage where dignitaries spoke of the heroism of those who rose up to fight the Nazi murderers and their collaborators in the midst of the unspeakable tragedy in which millions of Jews were tortured and methodically murdered.
“All of us, every one in the world, must be careful and remember that humanity initiated the Holocaust, and we have no right to forget and no authority to forgive,” acting President and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik reminded the audience at the ceremony.
The name of a Righteous Gentile who saved 300 Jewish children was called out to honor the courage of one who had everything to risk, with nothing to gain but a mitzvah. Others were mentioned as well. Stories of Jews who saved relatives, stories of those who had somehow survived were recounted throughout the evening as the Jewish people were warned never to forget.
The acting president also spoke about the need to ensure the health and welfare of those Jews who made it to Israel and are still alive.
“You deserve a life of honor in the State of Israel and the government is obliged to provide this,” she told those who survived the inferno that blazed against Jews across Europe.
Former Knesset Member Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, himself a Holocaust survivor and now Chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Council also stood at the podium. He said simply, “I was there.”
Pointing out that the "People of Israel are One," he added, “All of us were there. All of us were in the Holocaust,” and he warned that anti-Semitism is rampant in Europe, Japan and Muslim nations. He also exhorted the Jewish nation not to "sit with hands folded” while other people, such as those in Darfur, are being threatened with mass extermination.
Another speaker who raised the alarm on the rising threat against the Jewish people was Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
He underscored the central theme of this year’s state ceremony, “bearing witness,” in his speech as he spoke of the Holocaust denial conference hosted by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad late last year. The prime minister warned the Jewish people in his remarks to be ever wary. Ahmadinejad, one of the most prominent leaders who called the Holocaust “a myth", referred repeatedly to Israel over the past year as a “tumor” that must be “wiped off the map.”
“Do not have any illusions,” said the Prime Minister to the overflowing crowd of international leaders and clergy from around the world. “There are many people, including respected academics, who hate Israel with all their hearts and deny the right of Jews to exist. They deny all self-defense by the State of Israel.”
Despite the suffering of so many members of the Jewish nation, however, Prime Minister Olmert vowed to “uproot bias, racism and…hate.” He declared, “This is our historical obligation and is the commandment of our conscience to the State of Israel.”
In Different Ways, the Entire House of Israel Remembers
Jews who live in the State of Israel mark the day in different ways, but by law, all recreational sites and businesses were closed Sunday evening.
At 10:00 a.m. Monday, a two-minute siren will sound, stopping traffic on every road across the country and bringing Jews to their feet to honor the victims of Adolf Hitler. A wreath-laying ceremony will take place at the Warsaw Ghetto uprising memorial at Yad Vashem following the siren. Names of victims murdered in the Holocaust will then be recited, both at Yad VaShem and in the Knesset.
Other ceremonies marking the day include one for security forces at Kibbutz Tel Yitzchak, which will feature the last surviving witnesses who attended the trial of senior Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann, who was executed by Israel for his role in the genocide.
Monday evening, Kibbutz Lohamei Haghettaot will present its annual Holocaust memorial program.
Some religious Jews do not observe Yom HaShoah, believing that the mourning of central Jewish tragedies such as the destruction of the Holy Temples and other mass-killings of Jews on Tisha B’Av encompass the Holocaust as well. They also do not observe the day because Jewish law states that eulogies should not be made in the festive Hebrew month of Nissan.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel fixed the Fast of the Tenth of Teveth, which falls in January/February, as a day of reciting a general Kaddish prayer in memory of those murdered in the Holocaust, many of whose date of death is not known. Yom HaShoah is marked on the Hebrew date of Nisan 27th, the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
A survey conducted by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that 37 percent of Israel’s youth believe another Holocaust is a possibility, and six percent believe that there is a significant chance it will occur. The pollsters spoke with 500 Israeli youths between the ages of 15 and 18.
Daniel Pearl to be Added to Holocaust Memorial
American Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl, who was murdered by Al-Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan in 2002, will be added on Sunday to a Holocaust Memorial Wall in Miami Beach, Florida.
Pearl is the first victim of Islamic terrorism to be added to a Holocaust memorial event. The decision was initiated by a local Holocaust Memorial committee and embraced by Pearl’s family.
“Of course he was not a victim of the Holocaust,” Pearl’s father told The Miami Herald. “[But] the same forces that killed my grandparents in Auschwitz, the forces of hatred, are still operating in our world in the 21st century - and Danny is one of the victims.”
Pearl’s last words before Islamists decapitated him with a sword in front of a video camera were “I am a Jew.”
The eternal torch at Yad Vashem Memorial Museum burned on the stage where dignitaries spoke of the heroism of those who rose up to fight the Nazi murderers and their collaborators in the midst of the unspeakable tragedy in which millions of Jews were tortured and methodically murdered.
“All of us, every one in the world, must be careful and remember that humanity initiated the Holocaust, and we have no right to forget and no authority to forgive,” acting President and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik reminded the audience at the ceremony.
The name of a Righteous Gentile who saved 300 Jewish children was called out to honor the courage of one who had everything to risk, with nothing to gain but a mitzvah. Others were mentioned as well. Stories of Jews who saved relatives, stories of those who had somehow survived were recounted throughout the evening as the Jewish people were warned never to forget.
The acting president also spoke about the need to ensure the health and welfare of those Jews who made it to Israel and are still alive.
“You deserve a life of honor in the State of Israel and the government is obliged to provide this,” she told those who survived the inferno that blazed against Jews across Europe.
Former Knesset Member Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, himself a Holocaust survivor and now Chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Council also stood at the podium. He said simply, “I was there.”
Pointing out that the "People of Israel are One," he added, “All of us were there. All of us were in the Holocaust,” and he warned that anti-Semitism is rampant in Europe, Japan and Muslim nations. He also exhorted the Jewish nation not to "sit with hands folded” while other people, such as those in Darfur, are being threatened with mass extermination.
Another speaker who raised the alarm on the rising threat against the Jewish people was Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
He underscored the central theme of this year’s state ceremony, “bearing witness,” in his speech as he spoke of the Holocaust denial conference hosted by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad late last year. The prime minister warned the Jewish people in his remarks to be ever wary. Ahmadinejad, one of the most prominent leaders who called the Holocaust “a myth", referred repeatedly to Israel over the past year as a “tumor” that must be “wiped off the map.”
“Do not have any illusions,” said the Prime Minister to the overflowing crowd of international leaders and clergy from around the world. “There are many people, including respected academics, who hate Israel with all their hearts and deny the right of Jews to exist. They deny all self-defense by the State of Israel.”
Despite the suffering of so many members of the Jewish nation, however, Prime Minister Olmert vowed to “uproot bias, racism and…hate.” He declared, “This is our historical obligation and is the commandment of our conscience to the State of Israel.”
In Different Ways, the Entire House of Israel Remembers
Jews who live in the State of Israel mark the day in different ways, but by law, all recreational sites and businesses were closed Sunday evening.
At 10:00 a.m. Monday, a two-minute siren will sound, stopping traffic on every road across the country and bringing Jews to their feet to honor the victims of Adolf Hitler. A wreath-laying ceremony will take place at the Warsaw Ghetto uprising memorial at Yad Vashem following the siren. Names of victims murdered in the Holocaust will then be recited, both at Yad VaShem and in the Knesset.
Other ceremonies marking the day include one for security forces at Kibbutz Tel Yitzchak, which will feature the last surviving witnesses who attended the trial of senior Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann, who was executed by Israel for his role in the genocide.
Monday evening, Kibbutz Lohamei Haghettaot will present its annual Holocaust memorial program.
Some religious Jews do not observe Yom HaShoah, believing that the mourning of central Jewish tragedies such as the destruction of the Holy Temples and other mass-killings of Jews on Tisha B’Av encompass the Holocaust as well. They also do not observe the day because Jewish law states that eulogies should not be made in the festive Hebrew month of Nissan.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel fixed the Fast of the Tenth of Teveth, which falls in January/February, as a day of reciting a general Kaddish prayer in memory of those murdered in the Holocaust, many of whose date of death is not known. Yom HaShoah is marked on the Hebrew date of Nisan 27th, the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
A survey conducted by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that 37 percent of Israel’s youth believe another Holocaust is a possibility, and six percent believe that there is a significant chance it will occur. The pollsters spoke with 500 Israeli youths between the ages of 15 and 18.
Daniel Pearl to be Added to Holocaust Memorial
American Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl, who was murdered by Al-Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan in 2002, will be added on Sunday to a Holocaust Memorial Wall in Miami Beach, Florida.
Pearl is the first victim of Islamic terrorism to be added to a Holocaust memorial event. The decision was initiated by a local Holocaust Memorial committee and embraced by Pearl’s family.
“Of course he was not a victim of the Holocaust,” Pearl’s father told The Miami Herald. “[But] the same forces that killed my grandparents in Auschwitz, the forces of hatred, are still operating in our world in the 21st century - and Danny is one of the victims.”
Pearl’s last words before Islamists decapitated him with a sword in front of a video camera were “I am a Jew.”