The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem held two unrelated events yesterday. The first was the visit of Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivaids, who delivered a lecture at the Central School of Holocaust Instruction on Holocaust Teaching in Sweden and Anti-Semitism in Europe.
Yesterday evening, as part of the Jubilee Year events marking the founding of Yad Vashem, the "Hear O Israel" International Cantorial Concert was held, featuring top cantors from around the world. The participating cantors included Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, Israel Rand, Yaakov Motzen and Ben-Tzion Miller, together with the Yuval Israeli Ensemble for Chazanut and Jewish Music. Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau offered opening remarks.
The concert featured first-ever performances of restored works by the greatest pre-war cantors, conductors, vocalists and musicians. Yad Vashem announced that these works were "the cornerstone of the Jewish nation's culture during its sojourn in Europe, and nurtured many generations of Jews before being lost in the devastation of the Holocaust. The musicians were murdered and their legacy went up in flames; all that remained was scanty information about them, remains of scorched pages and broken tapes. Remnants of their works survived by being passed from the mouths of survivors who heard them in their glory to the ears of the current generation. This public performance at Yad Vashem is a living memorial to the cultural world the Nazis sought to wipe out."