Israel commemorates the Holocaust
The Yad Vashem state ceremony for Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day began at 8pm Israel time. In addition to remarks from the president and PM, a Holocaust survivor spoke on behalf of the six million Jews murdered by Nazis.
Sunday night, Israel ushered in the beginning of the annual Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day with a state ceremony at Yad Vashem’s Warsaw Ghetto Square on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem.
The ceremony, the theme of which was “Restoring Their Identities: The Fate of the Individual During the Holocaust,” was attended by the president, prime minister, speaker of the Knesset and deputy president of the Supreme Court. Some 2,500 Holocaust survivors also attended, along with Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, members of the Diplomatic Corps and IDF soldiers.
President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev spoke at the ceremony. Esther Miron, a Holocaust survivor, spoke on behalf of the survivors.
The ceremony began with the national flag being lowered to half staff while the attendant IDF soldiers presented arms.
"I am standing here on this dreadful night in Jerusalem, the rebuilt capital of the State of Israel," the president commented, "and on behalf of our brothers and sisters, the Holocaust survivors who struggled for their existence, their Jewishness and their human image, in their behalf I say, 'Blessed be Thou for sustaining us and bringing us to this day."
Rivlin compared the different approaches to Holocaust remembrance. The first spoke to the uniqueness of the Nazis’ campaign of genocide. “The gas chambers were not built as a crime against humanity,” he elaborated. “They were built with one aim, and that was to eliminate the Jewish people and to exterminate only the Jewish people.”
“On the other hand, there is the second approach, whereby the Shoah becomes the lens through which we view the world. According to this approach, the justification for the existence of the State of Israel is the prevention of the next Holocaust. Every threat is a threat to survival, every Israel-hating leader is Hitler. According to this approach, the essence of our collective Jewish identity is escape from massacre by joint means. And the world is divided into two, the ‘Righteous among the Nations’ on the one hand, and anti-Semitic Nazis on the other. And in any case, any criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitism.”
The president proposed a three-prong approach to learning from the Holocaust: “We should always protect ourselves with our own hands. The second pillar is the shared Jewish destiny. And the third pillar is beloved is man, for he is created in the image of God.”
Ostensibly referring to the ongoing fighting in Syria, Rivlin expanded on his third pillar: “We therefore cannot remain silent when facing the atrocities that are perpetrated in distant places, and definitely not those that are taking place just on the other side of the fence. Maintaining our human image is the great feat of heroism bequeathed to us by the victims of the Holocaust and by you, the survivors of the Holocaust.”
The prime minister decried the inaction of the world’s superpowers during the Holocaust.
Netanyahu further condemned what he termed “hypocrisy,” criticizing the United Nations of transferring its “hatred of the Jews to hatred of the Jewish state.”
He stressed the importance of Israeli strength, “We have to be able to defend ourselves on our own against any threat against any enemy.” He continued, “From a helpless people, we have turned into a robust nation. From a defenseless nation, we have turned into a powerful country that can defend itself with one of the strongest armies.”
During the ceremony, an additional six survivors lit torches in memory of the six million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis. In order, they were Moshe Ha-Elion, Moshe Jakubowitz, Jeannine Sebbane-Bouhanna, Moshe Porat, Max Privler and Elka Abramovitz.
During the ceremony, short videos about each of the torch lighters was shown, which remain available on the Yad Vashem website in the section dedicated to Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Singer Roni Dalumi and the IDF Paratroopers’ Honor Guard participated in the ceremony, and the actor Adir Miller read narrative pieces. The evening was emceed by the television personality Hila Korach.
In addition, the ceremony include the traditional memorial service, including the recitation of a chapter from Psalms by the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, David Lau. The Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yitzhak Yosef, recited the Kaddish and Cantor Lipa Glanz performed El Maleh Rahamim, the Jewish prayer for the souls of the martyrs.
