On Thursday, 8 Tishrei, at 15:30 the official memorial event marking 70 years since the murder of the Jews in Ukraine, including the massacres at Babi Yar and adjacent areas, will be held at Yad Vashem.  The wreath-laying ceremony will take place in partnership with the Association of Ukrainian Immigrants in Israel, in the Hall of Remembrance with the participation of Minister of Public Affairs & the Diaspora Yuli Edelstein, Ukrainian Minister of Culture Mykhailo Kulynyak, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau Shlita, and other officials.

70 years ago this week, 33,771 Jews were murdered in Babi Yar, near Kiev.  As the German army advanced eastward in the fall of 1941, similar mass murders of Jews took place throughout the region during this period.  Michael Sidko, who was a child during the Babi Yar massacre and survived, will rekindle the eternal flame.

Later Thursday evening a special memorial concert “Requiem for Babi Yar” will take place in the Jerusalem Theater in the presence of President Shimon Peres, Ministers Kulynyak and Edelstein, Rabbi Lau, Avner Shalev, David Levin, hundreds of Holocaust survivors and guests from the Ukraine.  The concert will be performed by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra – IBA, and the Dumka choir, under the baton of Vladimir Sirenko from Kiev.

On Tuesday, 6 Tishrei, the first ever educators’ seminar for Ukrainian graduates of Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies seminars will take place in Kiev.    The one-day event will focus on the Holocaust in the Ukrainian collective memory.  Some 100 educators are expected to participate.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)