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Israel
Day of Remembrance:
The day begins at sunset on the
27th of the Jewish month of Nisan and ending the following evening,
according to the traditional Jewish custom of marking a day.
Historical Background:
The 27th of Nisan commemorates the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising in April 1943. It is also important to note that on the
Jewish calendar, Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day falls soon
after the Passover holiday (in which Jews remember their bondage in
Egypt) and a few days before Israel Independence Day.
Israel and the Holocaust:
Lexicon entry from Yad Vashem's online Holocaust Resource Center:
Yishuv
Educational Activities:
The central ceremonies, in the evening and the following morning, are
held at Yad Vashem and are broadcast on the television. Marking the
start of the day at eight o’clock in the evening—in the presence of
dignitaries and survivors, children of survivors, and their families,
gather together with the general public to take part in the memorial
ceremony at Yad Vashem in which six torches, representing the six
million Jews who were killed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators,
are lit.
Places of entertainment (such as theaters, dance halls, restaurants,
and cafes) are closed and memorial ceremonies are held throughout the
country.
The next morning, at ten o’clock, the sounding of a two-minute siren
is heard throughout the entire country. For the duration of the
sounding, work is halted, people walking in the streets stop, cars
pull off to the side of the road, and everybody stands at silent
attention in reverence to the victims of the Holocaust. Afterward,
the focus of the ceremony at Yad Vashem is the laying of wreaths at
the foot of the six torches by dignitaries and the representatives of
survivor groups and institutions. During the day, the names of
Holocaust victims (as collected by the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem)
are recited at the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), Yad Vashem, and
institutions throughout the country. The martyred dead are remembered
not as abstract, anonymous numbers, but as individual human beings
with personal identities.
Other sites of remembrance in Israel, such as the Ghetto Fighters’
Kibbutz (Beit Lochamei Hagetaot), Massua at Kibbutz Tel Yitzhak, and
Kibbutz Yad Mordechai (named in honor of Mordechai Anilewicz, a
leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising), also organize memorial
ceremonies, as do schools and universities, military bases,
municipalities, and places of work. Throughout the day, both
television and radio stations broadcast programs about the Holocaust.
Holocaust survivors, who are now passing the torch of memory to
future generations, are invited to tell their personal stories in
schools on Yom Hashoah. Over the last decade, thousands of Israeli
students, commemorate Yom Hashoah at Auschwitz-Birkenau during their
study trips to Poland.
Since 1982, a minimum of 30 hours of Holocaust education has been
mandated in all state high schools. Usually taught in the eleventh
and twelfth grade, teachers mostly devote between twenty to thirty
classes on this topic, and a question related to the history of the
Holocaust has become an integral part of the history matriculation
exam given to high school students. Since 1999, the Holocaust has
become a recommended part of the junior high school curriculum as
well. It is also important to note that the Holocaust is often
taught from a variety of disciplines in schools, such as classes on
literature, English language, art and philosophy.
Holocaust
Education Seminars:
Over 100,000 young people from both formal and informal educational
systems in Israel and abroad attend workshops and tours at Yad Vashem
each year. These workshops are held for soldiers in the Israeli army,
and for youth groups from Israel and abroad. In addition, Yad Vashem
organizes special preparatory seminars for study tours to Poland and
Germany for Israeli students and soldiers. For more information (in Hebrew),
click here.
Websites and Teaching Aids:
The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
www.yadvashem.org
Ghetto Fighters’ House:
www.gfh.org.il
Massua The Institute for the Study of the Holocuast Memorial to
Members of Zionist Youth Movements in Disaster and Revolt:
www.massuah.org.il
Yad Vashem website in
Hebrew:
www1.yadvashem.org/heb_site/heb_education/heb_index_education.html
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