The American Society for Yad Vashem and Yad Vashem are observing International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, in New York, Israel and online.
In New York City, our Young Leadership Associates will attend a ceremony at the United Nations on Friday, January 27th. Ms. Cristina Gallach, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, will host the ceremony. In addition to the Secretary-General, speakers will include; H. E. Mr. Peter Thomson, President of the seventy-first session of the General Assembly; H.E. Mr. Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations; H.E. Ms. Michele J. Sison, United States Deputy Representative to the United Nations. Mr. Noah Klieger will be keynote speaker. Cantor Israel Singer, of CongregationTemple Emanu-El of Closter, New Jersey, will recite the memorial prayers and be accompanied by violinist Mr. Artur Kaganovskiy. The ceremony will include music by guitarist Mr. Gary Lucas and vocalist Ms. Rachel Joselson, Doctor of Music Arts and Associate Professor at the University of Iowa. Contact us for more information
In Israel, Yad Vashem will host an event for members of the international diplomats corps on Thursday, January 26th.. Ambassadors and representatives from over 40 countries including the United Kingdom, European Union, France, Poland, Germany, Russia, Canada, Spain, Ukraine, Netherlands and Lithuania will attend this event. Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev will address the audience following a keynote speech by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In addition, the diplomats will tour the exhibition, “Stars Without a Heaven,” which tells the story of the Holocaust from the point of view of children, and hear a presentation by Yad Vashem Archives Director and Fred Hillman Chair for Holocaust Documentation Dr. Haim Gertner. The event will take place in the Yad Vashem Synagogue.
The following day, there will be a memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem commemorating the Italian Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust. The event will take place in coordination with the Italian Embassy and in the presence of the Italian Ambassador to Israel.
Yad Vashem created a mini-site marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, featuring a variety of resources the public can view, share and engage, including online exhibitions, educational resources and the unique Facebook campaign, the “IRemember Wall.” The IRemember Wall is a unique and meaningful oppertunity for the public to participate in an online commemorative activity. When one joins the Wall, one’s Facebook profile is automatically linked to the name of a Holocaust victim from our Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names and togehter, they are posted to Yad Vashem’s Facebook wall. As one participant said: This is a great way of keeping the Holocaust victims relevant. They should forever be linked with the living, lest we forget!” Click here to join the IRemember Wall.
In addition, Yad Vashem has curated “Last Letters From the Holocaust: 1941,” a touching online exhibition featuring missives, some viewable by the public for the first time, written by children and adults in the midst of the Shoah and sent to their loved ones. They were composed in 1941 by Jews in the ghettos, camps, while fleeing, in hiding and while wandering from place to place. They reveal the inner world and terrible fate of individual Jews in the Holocaust; for many recipients, they were also the last greetings and messages from their loved ones.
Yad Vashem, through the work of the Christian desk of the International Division, is screening the 2016 Yom Hashoah Ceremony as part of our commemoration outreach to millions of viewers on January 27th. The NRB Network and international broadcast partners will air a special presentation of the April 2016 Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony held at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The main broadcast in the USA is scheduled for January 27, 2017 at 9pm central/eastern time. The channel is NRB TV Direct TV Channel 378 and it is also available online: www.nrbtv.org
We hope you join us in participating in these important displays of commemoration.
