25 June Assembly marking 66 years since the beginning of the Holocaust in Romania—the Dorohoi Pogrom of 30 June 1940 and the deportation of the region’s Jews to the death camps in Transylvania. The assembly was held in the Dorohoi Area Martyrs’ Forest, in the presence of Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yafo Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Romanian Ambassador to Israel H.E. Dr. Valeria Mariana Stoica, Knesset members Colette Avital, Sarah Shalev and Moshe Sharoni, Dorohoi Mayor Sergio Lunego, Center for Holocaust Survivor Organizations Chairman Noah Flug, Association of Romanian Immigrants Chairman Ze’ev Schwartz, Dorohoi Area Survivors Organization Chairman David Shlomo, Society for the Advancement of Romanian Jewry Chairman Rabbi Yosef Wasserman and JNF representative Michael Ben Abu. Assembly participants lit torches and laid wreaths.

2 July Commemorative assembly marking 65 years since the massacre of the Jews of Iasi and the Dorohoi Pogrom. The assembly, organized by the Memorial Foundation for Romanian Jewry, was held in the Beit Yaakov Yosef-Harav Zvi Gutman Synagogue and Community Center in Tel Aviv, in the presence of Romanian Ambassador to Israel H.E. Dr. Valeria Mariana Stoica, Knesset Member Moshe Sharoni, 2006 Israel Prize Laureate Maestro Mendi Rodan, and Rabbi Efraim Gutman of the Romanian immigrant community.

18 July Ceremony honoring Ukrainian Righteous Among the Nations—the late Tatyana Minkovskaya and Nikifor Kurochka, the late Frania Dedek and the late Nestor Sniadanko. The awards and medals were presented to survivors by the Chairman of the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous Among the Nations, Supreme Court Justice Yaakov Turkel, and by Yad Vashem Director General Nathan Eitan. The ceremony, led by Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, was attended by some 80 participants, including survivors Antonia Gruber, Binyamin Blitzer, Eliezer Art and Neli Zaslavsky, family and friends.

6 August Assembly marking 64 years since the murder of Janusz Korczak, Stefania Wilczynska and the children, in cooperation with the Janusz Korczak Association in Israel and the Jewish National Fund. The event was held at Yad Vashem’s Janusz Korczak Square, with the participation of International School for Holocaust Studies Director Dr. Motti Shalem, Polish Embassy in Israel representative Pjotr Drobnjak, Janusz Korczak Association Director General Binyamin Anolik, former Association Chairman Dr. Eliezer Marcus, and Chairman of the Association’s Education Committee Batya Gilad. A wreath was laid by the artist Yitzhak Belfer, one of Korczak’s orphanage charges and a member of the Korczak Association, and a member of the Machanot Ha’olim Youth Movement addressed the participants. The assembly was attended by some 60 participants, including former charges of Korczak’s, members of the Korczak Association, and members of Machanot Ha’olim.

17 August Annual memorial gathering for the Jews of Rhodes and Kos murdered in the Holocaust, in cooperation with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Jewish Heritage of Rhodes in Jerusalem. The event began with a memorial ceremony in Yad Vashem’s Hall of Remembrance, with the participation of Israel-Greece Friendship League Chairwoman, MK Estherina Tartman. The event continued with speeches by editor of The Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities: Greece, Bracha Rivlin, Chairman of the Press Association in Jerusalem Yaron Enosh, Rhodes Foundation Chairman Mario Suriano, National Authority for Ladino and its Culture representative Zelda Ovadia, and Levana Dinerman of Tel Aviv University. Author Mathilda Cohen-Serano read an assortment of poems, and there was a screening of the moving documentary Who Are You Moshe Surmani? Some one hundred participants attended the event.

19 September Charlotte Salomon: Life? Or Theater? Symposium about the artist’s life and work, with the participation of Director-General of Yad Vashem Nathan Eitan, Goethe-Institute Jerusalem Director Simone Lenz, Director of the Museums Division Yehudit Inbar, art curator and scholar Dr. Gideon Ofrat, Museums Division senior art curator Yehudit Shendar, and composer Ella Milch-Sheriff. The symposium concluded with a guided tour of the Charlotte Salomon exhibition, as well as a screening of several films about the artist in the Visual Center.

27 September Annual gathering marking 62 years since the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto, and two hundred years of Jewish life in Lodz, by the Lodz Immigrants Association in Israel. The event was held at the Tel Aviv Museum with the participation of Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, Lodz Mayor Dr. Jerzy Kropiwnicki, and playwright Nava Semel. The artistic program included performances by tenor Yevgeny Shapovalov and the Yaldei David Hamelech girls’ choir. The event was attended by some five hundred survivors, and members of the next generations.

28 September Annual memorial ceremony marking 65 years since the murder of the Jews by the Nazis on Ukrainian territory—the massacres at Babi Yar, Bogdanovka, Drubitzky Yar and nearby areas—in conjunction with Amigour – management of assets, Jewish Agency Housing Project; the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption; the Association of Ukrainian Immigrants in Israel; and the Jewish Agency. The event was held at Yad Vashem’s Monument to the Jewish Soldiers and Partisans, in the presence of Immigrant Absorption Minister Ze’ev Boim, Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski, Yad Vashem Council Chairman Joseph (Tommy) Lapid, Amigour Board of Directors Chairman Moshe Nativ and Director-General Yuval Frankel, and Association of Ukrainian Immigrants in Israel Chairman David Levin.

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