17 January 2008
On November 1, 2005, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution designating January 27 as “International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.” Yad Vashem will be marking the third annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day in a variety of ways:
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24.1.08: Launch of Yad Vashem Website in Arabic and Panel Discussion: A panel discussion, “The Holocaust and the Arab World” with the participation of journalist Nazir Majali, “Ashraq Alawsat”, Dr. Meir Litvak, Tel Aviv University, and Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, in the presence of Minister of Science, Culture and Sport Raleb Majadele, will be held to mark the launch of Yad Vashem’s new Arabic website. The site, which will be launched on January 24, 2008 at www.yadvashem.org will include the historical narrative of the Holocaust, concepts from the Holocaust, academic articles, artifacts, maps, photos, archival documents and an online video testimony resource center all translated into Arabic, as well as a special multimedia presentation of the Auschwitz Album, stories of Righteous Among the Nations-including Muslims from Turkey and Albania-and the movie We Were There, which documents a joint visit of Arabs and Jews to Auschwitz.
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27-29.1.08: International Youth Congress: Young people from more than 60 countries and five continents will gather at Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies, for a three-day Youth Congress, beginning on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ranging in age from 16 to 20 - Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists - and speaking some 30 different languages, participants will make the voice of the future heard on shaping Holocaust remembrance and its importance to coming generations. Countries as varying as Senegal, Morocco, Australia, Thailand, Nepal, China, The Gambia, Canada, Russia, Poland, France, Great Britain, Guatemala, Turkey, Israel and the United States will be represented. The Congress, under the patronage of UNESCO, will be devoted to the study of the Holocaust and discussions of its universal significance. Participants will study various Holocaust-related topics, tour Yad Vashem and Jerusalem, participate in workshops, and meet with Holocaust survivors. Special sessions will be held with the participation of President Shimon Peres, Minister of Education Prof. Yuli Tamir, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni and the diplomatic corps. During the Congress, participants will formulate an international youth treaty and present it to Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev.
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“Signposts”-a special international project in which graphic design students from Israel, Poland and England designed a series of Holocaust-themed postcards that will be exhibited at the International School and uploaded to the Yad Vashem website
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22-23.1.08: European Commission-Israel Seminar on the Fight Against Racism, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism: Held in conjunction with the Israeli Foreign Ministry, this two day seminar brings together 30 education experts from across Europe for in depth discussions on how to combat racism, xenophobia and antisemitism. The opening session will be addressed by Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Isaac Herzog, and Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini.
