Ironically, despite the almost 50 world leaders arriving in Jerusalem on Wednesday to mark the 75th year since Auschwitz was liberated, only about 30 Holocaust survivors are expected to participate in the World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem, according to a report on Monday by Army Radio.

Minister of Jerusalem Affairs MK Ze’ez Elkin (Likud) heard the radio report and decided that he was going to give away his ticket to the event to a Holocaust survivor.

“I heard on [the radio] that only 30 Holocaust survivors received invitations to the ceremony at Yad Vashem on Thursday and many Holocaust survivors didn’t receive invitations,” Elkin wrote on Twitter. “I was invited to this ceremony and very much wanted to attend because of the importance of memorializing the Holocaust but I now decided to transfer my invitation to a Holocaust survivor who wasn’t invited. I propose to my fellow ministers to do the same.”

A response by Yad Vashem to the radio report was quoted by Charedim10: “The event is not a public ceremony but a gathering of leaders. The hall only has 780 seats – about half of which are for the leaders and their minimal delegations. Sixty seats were reserved for Holocaust survivors and their companions and they were invited to the event by the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel. According to recently published data, over 100,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel which means it’s not possible to invite everyone and not even half of them.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)