10 November 2024
The November Pogrom ("Kristallnacht") was a watershed event, emblematic of the attempt to extinguish the Jewish spirit. In the course of a number of days and nights in November 1938, the Nazis desecrated and burned synagogues, torched holy books, and ransacked Jewish institutions and businesses throughout Germany and Austria.
Bent on eradicating both the body and soul of the Jewish people, the Nazis hunted the Jews down and murdered them, at the same time embarking on a crusade to eliminate Jewish cultural treasures and to erase Jewish heritage from the face of the earth. In the course of this campaign of devastation, religious and cultural institutions were damaged, and books and artworks epitomizing the Jewish spirit were destroyed.
Now more than ever, in the face of escalating antisemitism, we invite you to join us in a special initiative on the night of 9 November, the date that we mark the November Pogrom. The "Spread the Light" initiative calls upon the public to leave the lights on overnight in synagogues, cultural establishments, places of gathering and study, and communal buildings, in order to symbolize the triumph of the Jewish spirit. (This year, the pogrom will be marked on the night of 10 November).
The glow radiating from these shining lights will prove that Nazi Germany did not obliterate Judaism; it will declare that the attempt to crush the Jewish spirit and erase its very existence was unsuccessful. In joining the "Spread the Light" initiative, we will maintain the tradition of commemorating Jewish culture and spiritual resilience during the Holocaust together—as a community.
Above all else, the light that we spread together in one night will express the fundamental value of solidarity, thus reminding us of the Jewish world that was and is no more, and evoking the challenges facing Jewish communities around the world today and in the future.
We encourage you to use this initiative to facilitate dialogue and study. To this end group activities, sources and texts are available on the Yad Vashem website.
Keep the Lights on. Take a photo. Share on social media. Tag Yad Vashem with #SpreadtheLight.
![Spread the Light: November Pogrom ("Kristallnacht") Remembrance Initiative](https://www.yadvashem.org/sites/default/files/logo_for_web.jpg "Spread the Light: November Pogrom ("Kristallnacht") Remembrance Initiative"){kind=logo}
