By Nicole Sivan
This past Sunday evening in Israel marked the beginning of Yom HaShoah (Day of the Catastrophe) or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Holocaust is derived from the Greek words Holos, meaning whole, and Kaustos, meaning burnt. Shoah is the Hebrew word for catastrophe. Holocaust Remembrance Day is the official day when Israelis remember and commemorate the six million Jewish men, women and children systematically murdered by the German Reich during WWII. In 1939, at the start of the war, there were approximately nine million Jews living in Europe. By the end of the war in 1945, two thirds of this population had been annihilated, including one million Jewish children.
This year, Yom HaShoah began at sundown on Sunday, April 27, and ended at sundown on Monday, April 28. All Jewish holidays and memorial days are observed from sunset to sunset. Yom HaShoah is a national memorial day in Israel, inaugurated in 1953 by Israel’s Prime Minister David Ben Gurion. This day of commemoration is held each year on the 27th of the Hebrew month of Nisan, which usually falls during the Gregorian month of April or May. The Hebrew calendar follows a lunar year, and if the 27th of Nisan falls on Shabbat (Sabbath), the day is shifted back to the preceding Friday or moved forward to the following Sunday, as it is never observed on Shabbat.
Most communities in Israel hold a solemn ceremony to commemorate the day. No formal institutionalized ritual has ever been established, and most ceremonies include the lighting of memorial candles, the reciting of the Kaddish (the prayer for the deceased), and many will include the reading of all known names of Holocaust victims. Schools will teach about the Holocaust in the week leading up to Memorial Day and many survivors will offer to share their personal stories.
Yom HaShoah officially begins with a state ceremony held in Warsaw Ghetto Square at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum and Institute in Jerusalem. The Israel national flag is lowered to half mast, as it is at all public institutions throughout the country. Each year six Holocaust survivors are invited to light six memorial torches, representing the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Places of public entertainment throughout the county are closed by law during these 24-hours. Television channels only air Holocaust documentaries, movies or commentaries, and the radio stations forego upbeat pop hits, substituting instead soft, sad, and traditional songs.
At 10 am on Yom HaShoah, an air raid siren is sounded throughout the country and every man, women and child stands in place wherever they are to observe two minutes of solemn reflection. Witnessing this moment of silence is a chilling experience as traffic along every street and highway comes to a standstill. Drivers step out of their vehicles and stand solemnly beside their cars as the siren rings out. Passengers on city buses stand silently next to their seats, hands at their sides, and even the country’s youngsters are trained not to make a fuss during these minutes of remembrance. There is no other country where you can witness such a beautiful moment of unity, remembrance and heartfelt compassion as you can during this moment of reflection. For these two minutes, all of Israel’s political, religious, social, and economic divisions melt away and the country’s population stands shoulder to shoulder under the banner of “Never Forget and Never Again.” Israel’s memorial days are truly a beautiful and moving time to visit the Holy Land.
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