What’s New | Spotlight on the Web | Names Recovery | Recent Events | With Your Support  | Yad Vashem Magazine  | Support Us

Dear Friend,
Thank you for taking the time to read the newest edition of the Yad Vashem newsletter. Here’s a brief look at some of our many recent events marking Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day.

Some 130,000 images from Yad Vashem’s Photo Archives were recently uploaded to www.yadvashem.org in an easily searchable online database. The largest archive of its kind in the world, the images in it include photographs of the ghettos, deportations, slave labor, the camps, liberation and more. These photographs represent an invaluable asset to historians, educators, writers, filmmakers and the public at large. Additional detailed information is easily available via a Google map that automatically opens, showing the location of the places mentioned in the caption. The computerization of this collection makes this unique set of photographs readily accessible to the public at large. Click here to enter the database.

In order to make reliable information about the Holocaust available online to a wider audience, Yad Vashem has recently launched two YouTube channels, one in English and the other in Arabic. The English language channel contains testimonies from Holocaust survivors, including archival footage, historians’ lectures on key issues related to the Holocaust, footage from visits to Yad Vashem, as well as human interest stories. The Arabic channel has testimonies and archival footage about the Holocaust, all supplemented with Arabic subtitles. The channels are dynamic and new videos will be added frequently to further enrich the material being shown. During its first two weeks of activity, over 270,000 videos were viewed, demonstrating the current demand for accurate and easily obtainable information about the Holocaust.

VIP Visits to Yad Vashem

As part of the worldwide attention Israel is receiving for its 60th anniversary celebrations, a wide-range of dignitaries, politicians, authors, actors and VIPs visited Yad Vashem during the second week of May. Among them were the Presidents of Rwanda, Albania, Slovenia, Mongolia and Burkina Faso and the President of UN General Assembly, each of whom came to Yad Vashem with their respective delegations. US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, author and Nobel Prize Laureate Nadine Gordimer, actor John Voight, and businesswoman and model Ivanka Trump were among the other special visitors who visited Yad Vashem during the same week.

Spotlight on the Web

New Online Exhibition “To Build and to Be Built”

Highlighting the contribution of Holocaust survivors to the State of Israel, the exhibit examines the individual stories of a diverse group of individuals, bringing to the fore the participation of Holocaust Survivors in developing the unique character of Israel. Photos, video interviews, and text accompany the viewer giving an unusual glimpse into the lives of these survivors who chose to rebuild their own lives while at the same time becoming an integral part of the nascent state.

Righteous Among the Nations Mini-site Launched

An updated mini-site in English, dedicated exclusively to information about the Righteous Among the Nations, recently came online on www.yadvashem.org. An expanded and easily searchable database of the Righteous and their rescue stories, as well as a virtual tour of the Garden and Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations, are only a small part of the newly updated site.

Names Recovery

Join Worldwide Network of Volunteers Recovering the Names of Shoah Victims

Join the global network of volunteers of Yad Vashem’s Shoah Victims' Names Recovery Project and work with survivors and others in your community through a one-on-one outreach/visiting program. Yad Vashem will provide you with free program materials to initiate and implement a grassroots community campaign through your schools, synagogues, community centers or social welfare programs aimed at identifying and assisting survivors and others from their generation to fill out Pages of Testimony. To order a free CD and Poster (available in English, Hebrew or Russian) please contact: names.outreach@yadvashem.org.il

Visit our Community Outreach Guide, now available in Hebrew, Russian and English, for tips and ideas on how to launch a Names Recovery Campaign in your area.

Recent Events

New Exhibition at Yad Vashem

New Exhibition at Yad Vashem- "My Homeland: Holocaust Survivors in Israel," an exhibition honoring the contribution of Holocaust Survivors to the establishment and development of the State of Israel, has just opened at Yad Vashem. The exhibition highlights the contributions of graphic artists, performing artists, authors, photographers, fashion designers, athletes and more, telling the story of Holocaust survivors in the shaping of Israeli identity. Recently reviewed by the New York Times, the exhibition and the activities of the Holocaust survivors it paid tribute to, took center stage in the prestigious paper.

With Your Support...

While the successful activities and programs detailed above are notable, and merit celebration, the fact remains that Yad Vashem requires additional support to ensure that it can continue to pursue its important mission of commemoration and education. Now, we need you to join us in our efforts to transform commemoration into a lasting commitment to the Jewish people, to moral values and to responsible action.
 

Yad Vashem to Build New Wing of International School for Holocaust Studies In order to facilitate the current rate of growth, and to provide for the School’s changing needs, Yad Vashem is proposing to construct a new wing of the International School for Holocaust Studies. The activities of the International School in the last seven years have increased above and beyond even the most optimistic of projections, to a level where the current facilities are simply restricting our ability to offer new programming. Several partnership opportunities exist in this exciting new venture.

Yad Vashem welcomes the ongoing partnership and visits from its friends and supporters:

For more information on Friends of Yad Vashem please click here

Yad Vashem Quarterly Magazine

The central theme of this year’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day is explored in the Spring 2008 edition of Yad Vashem Jerusalem, our quarterly magazine. In the year marking Israel’s milestone anniversary, Yad Vashem chose as its central theme “Holocaust Survivors in Israel-60 years Since the Establishment of the State.” The broadcast of the ceremony can be seen on the Yad Vashem website. In addition to reading about this years’ six torchlighters, get a preview of Yad Vashem’s new exhibition “My Homeland: Holocaust Survivors in Israel,” learn about new cooperative forums on Holocaust Education, new publications, and keep up with other recent events at Yad Vashem. Click here to read the magazine.

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