Debunking Viral Claim About the Talmud and Minors
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Diving into Yad Vashem’s meaningful Work, from the Book of Names to a new center in Germany.
Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, was first established in 1953 – just five years after the modern state of Israel was founded, and only eight years after the end of World War II. Today, in a time when there are only 220,800 Holocaust survivors left and antisemitism is on the rise post-October 7, the museum is introducing meaningful ways to keep the memory of the victims alive while continuing to educate visitors.
“Although Oct. 7 and the Shoah are two completely different events – mainly because we now have an independent Jewish state and we are not at the mercy of others – there is no doubt that the exponential rise of antisemitism across the world in the wake of Oct. 7 presents a new set of challenges,” Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, told Aish. “We have seen the rabid antisemitic and anti-Israel demonstrations taking place, as well as gross manifestations of Holocaust distortion and denial, inversion and misuse. This makes our work more important than ever - to educate as broad an audience as possible about the real and tangible dangers of unchecked antisemitism.”
On Rosh Hashanah, every Jew hopes to be inscribed in the Book of Life, which is said to be written over the two days of the holiday and sealed on Yom Kippur. At Yad Vashem, they have a different book: a Book of Names, which was meticulously compiled and commemorates nearly five million men, women, and children who perished in the Holocaust. Details about them were found in Pages of Testimony, various Holocaust-era documents, cooperation with memorial sites and more. The information is printed on pages that measure two meters high and one meter wide, and the details, including the names, birthplaces and birthdates, as well as places where they were murdered are illuminated by a gentle beam of light that shines from between the pages.
The Book of Names
“Abel Herzberg, a Dutch lawyer and survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, said: ‘It's not that six million Jews were murdered; rather there were six million murders, and in each case one Jew was murdered.’ The Book of Names illustrates the staggering number of Holocaust victims, listing their names alongside details like birth dates, hometowns and places of death, ensuring they are not forgotten,” said Dani. “It reflects the unfathomable loss the Jewish people suffered. And the final pages remain empty, symbolizing the many victims yet to be, or sadly may never be, recorded.”
Along with the Book of Names, Yad Vashem recently launched two new experiences: the Touching Memories theater that lets audiences connect with the past through monodramas in Hebrew and English, and an immersive audio- visual experience in the Valley of Communities that commemorates the Jewish life and culture in Europe and North Africa that was decimated by the Nazis.
The museum is also opening its first education center outside of Israel.
“It will be established in Germany with strong support from the German government,” said Dani. “The education center will address the dangerous phenomenon of Holocaust distortion and trivialization and ensure the continuation of Holocaust remembrance and education for years to come.”
The goal of Yad Vashem is not only to educate Jews – it’s to show non-Jews the dangers of antisemitism, which affects everyone.
“It is important that they understand the necessity of an independent Jewish state,” said Dani. “It is not something that is nice to have, rather it is existential. We know the story of the St. Louis, the ship filled with Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis in search of a safe haven that was turned away country after country, including by the United States. Israel is the guarantee that will never happen again. Israel is that safe haven. The second is about the need to combat antisemitism in all its forms and at its earliest stage, otherwise it will metastasize into monstrous dimensions, and it will be too late. It not only targets the Jewish people, but it damages the societies that tolerate it.”
As the chairman, Dani’s ultimate goal is to lead Yad Vashem through what they refer to as the “crossroads of generations.”
Dani Dayan
“This is a turning point, with the number of Holocaust survivors dwindling and the responsibility to preserve their stories falling to us and to the next generations,” he said. “If we are unprepared, it will be open season for Holocaust distorters and denialists. So, we are investing heavily in new exhibits and projects that tell about the horrors of the Shoah in a personal and compelling manner, in developing new technologies that offer novel ways to connect to and learn from the past, and we are engaging younger scholars who will expand upon today’s Holocaust research.”
I wonder whoever claims to be a Holocaust Survivor these days were they really in a actual concentration camp or ghetto, or just hid or was in Sibera or ran to deep Russia, not being in a ghetto and concentration camp is different than being in one, and when a relative was there the descendants got affected/ effected by the trauma too, we heard our relatives story, some Holocaust Survivors ( obm) had nightmares from what they endured, and the survivors of October 7, 2023 might have the same thing that Holocaust Survivors( obm) went through so they will need a lot of therapy which survivors did not get at the time, which was a very important to have the, but unfortunately they didn't at the time after it happened to them
My mother's( obm) family( obm) was murdered in Chlemno and her( obm) older brother was starved and beaten by the Nazis ( may their names be erased) and my mother( obm) was in one of the worst concentration camps called Auschwitz-Birneau, and I think the names could be in Yad Vashem archives or files of some type, and also my mom( obm) had a interview with the someone to tell her( obm) story, which is very important but my mom( obm) to not get tattooed they stopped doing it when it was my mother's( obm) turn the Auschwitz-Birneau tattoo was a ice blue with small a letter and numbers, I saw the tattoo when I read my Mispacha magazine recently, whoever had this tattoo was a witness and the tattoo is evidence they were in Auschwitz-Birneau concentration camp
yes! this is very important.
But also very important to realise that the secular media in Israel like Haaretz, are actually fuelling the burning antisemitism in Europe. Whatever Haaretz and other secular media writes in Israel - does not remain in Israel, but is instantly picked up by Al Yazera and all the other hateful western media. As long as Haaretz are allowed to print devastating critics on the Israel government, we have no answer to the rise of antisemitism.
Hashem Jishmor.