Israel came to a standstill on Thursday morning with a two-minute siren wailing across the country in remembrance of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Pedestrians stood in place, buses stopped on busy streets and cars pulled over on major highways — their drivers standing on the roads with their heads bowed. In homes and businesses, people stopped what they were doing to pay homage to the victims of the Nazi genocide, in which a third of world Jewry was annihilated.
A wreath-laying ceremony at the Yad Vashem memorial followed, with Israeli leaders and Holocaust survivors in attendance. Other ceremonies, prayers and musical performances took place in schools, community centers and army bases around the country.
The names of those who perished in the genocide are typically read aloud in parliament throughout the day.
The annual remembrance is one of the most solemn on Israel’s calendar. Restaurants, cafes and places of entertainment shut down, and radio and TV programming are dedicated almost exclusively to documentaries about the Holocaust, interviews with survivors and somber music.
The Israeli flag flew at half-staff.
The Holocaust runs deep in Israeli public consciousness. The state was established in 1948, three years after the genocide ended with the conclusion of World War II, as a place of refuge for Jews across the world. Hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors who had lost their families fled there and made it their home.
According to the Hebrew calendar, Holocaust Remembrance Day marks the anniversary of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising — the most significant, yet doomed, act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust that helped shape Israel’s national psyche, symbolizing strength and the struggle for freedom in the face of annihilation.
The commemoration began Wednesday night, with a state ceremony at country’s national Holocaust memorial in which leaders voiced concerns about a rising tide of anti-Semitism worldwide.
President Reuven Rivlin touched on the surging anti-Semitism in Europe, which he said “is once again rearing its head, fueled by waves of immigration, economic crises and disillusionment with the political establishment.”
Every year on #YomHaShoah, we read the names of #Holocaust victims. "Every Person Has a Name". But there are so many names that we will never know, despite the never ending efforts to find them. May their memory be a blessing#NeverForget #HolocaustRemembranceDay pic.twitter.com/lnYPnfLVLm
— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) May 2, 2019
In veiled criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he urged the government to rethink its cultivation of alliances with nationalist parties in Europe who have anti-Semitic pasts. Netanyahu has come under fire for embracing a string of eastern European leaders who have lavished Israel with political support while promoting a distorted image of the Holocaust and sought to diminish their culpability while making heroes out of anti-Soviet nationalists involved in the mass killing of Jews.
No more left and right when it comes to the memory of the #Holocaust , no more secular and religious, no more Zionists and non-Zionists, no more Sephardim and Ashkenazim, but one people remembering together, grieving together on #YomHaShoah for its dead, our sons and daughters pic.twitter.com/oYCnwk4HtJ
— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) May 2, 2019
In memory of the six million #Jewish victims of the #Holocaust . We will remember, and never forget. #HolocaustMemorialDay #NeverForget #YomHaShoah pic.twitter.com/kpVuDAm4P4
— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) May 1, 2019
In his remarks, Netanyahu also stressed the continued threat of anti-Semitic extremism. He said that the extreme right, extreme left and radical Islam agree on “one thing: their hatred of Jews.”
Netanyahu noted the deadly synagogue shootings in San Diego last weekend and in Pittsburgh last October, as well as recurring vandalism at Jewish cemeteries.
#Holocaust survivors, each and every one of you is a miracle, A symbol of life out of death, of hope and faith in life and the eternity of the #Jewish people. May the memories of the victims be in our hearts forever, and may their souls be forever bound up in the bond of life pic.twitter.com/dcHbd5HWYV
— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) May 2, 2019
(AP)
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8 Responses
In Nissan we celebrate, not mourn. Gedolim have dismissed this Zionist created day ever since they created it.
We have Tisha B’Av.
You could have simply put a link to the original Ynet article.
Joseph, during the aktions and selections the Nazis did not ask if you were a Zionist or for that matter what you believed in or held from. Jewish sinat chinam will ultimately lead to the total annihilation of the Jewish people.
BTW Joseph, many pre-war gedolim discouraged Jews from leaving Europe to the treifa midinah.
Joseph, I had a feeling you would comment first as seemd you have nothing to do the whole day and play with your smartphone. Really, we dont mourn, and how about sfira? And since you brought up topic of gadolim against something, what are you doing on internet, play on your smartphone or maybe you have a special permission. What I can swallow the most is hypocrites like you so start practicing what you are preaching here and if you dont come here to comment and instead sit and learn, no one will miss you.
Joe, no one is stopping you from celebrating. Don’t let Yom HaShoa ruin your day.
do arabs stand as well?
Yea, Joey, nobody acts with mourning in Nissan — except for those who keep the first Sefirah (till Lag be’Omer)!