Antisemitism victims memorialized in new website by Diaspora Affairs Min.
Hundreds of Jews killed in an antisemitic attacks in the Diaspora since the end of the Holocaust will be commemorated on a new website.
By JEREMY SHARONFlowers and other items have been left as memorials outside the Tree of Life synagogue following last Saturday's shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 3, 2018(photo credit: ALAN FREED/REUTERS)
The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs has developed a new website to memorialize and commemorate the lives of Jews killed in antisemitic attacks in the Diaspora.The website will record all those who were murdered because they were Jewish outside of Israel in the years since the end of the Holocaust.And the ministry is also examining the possibility of establishing an official day or ceremony for Jewish communities in Israel and around the world to collectively commemorate the victims of such attacks.The website commemorates and documents hundreds of victims of antisemitic attacks and will provide biographies, personal testimonies and pictures for all of those killed in such attacks.Currently 150 people are commemorated on the site dating back to the 1980s, but the ministry will continue to add victims killed in previous decades as the project expands.The website is currently available in Hebrew and English.Developed in partnership with the Knesset’s Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee, the platform is being modeled on the Ministry of Defense’s “Yizkor” website, which commemorates fallen IDF soldiers.In recent months, the ministry partnered with global Jewish organizations to gather and collate background information about victims of antisemitism worldwide since the end of the Second World War and the Holocaust.In coming days, ministry staff will begin contacting families and loved ones of Jews killed in antisemitic attacks to hear their stories and memories of the victims, which will be used on the dedicated webpage of each person recorded on the site.The ministry is forming a committee of experts to establish standards for the documentation of these attacks, including the development of an official definition for victims of antisemitic assaults, whether an existing or a new one.
Discussions are also being held regarding the creation of a national day of remembrance for victims of antisemitic attacks in the Diaspora.Amongst the victims memorialized on the website are those killed in the Jersey City shootings in New Jersey in 2019, the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2018; victims of the Hypercache supermarket attack in Paris in 2015, the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires in 1994, among others.Sarah Halimi, who was brutally murdered in an attack in Paris in 2017 and whose murderer was recently absolved of criminal responsibility for the crime because he took cannabis shortly before killing her, is another of those commemorated on the site.“The phrase, ‘Never Again’ continues to guide us in our thought and action,” said Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevitch about the new project.“The Holocaust did not occur in a vacuum; it came after hundreds of years of senseless hatred against our people. It is now our shared responsibility to combat modern antisemitism and raise global awareness.“By establishing this platform, we reaffirm that these victims will always be in our hearts and minds. We will be pushed to honor and remember them by continuing our work to eradicate antisemitism around the world.”Director for Combating Antisemitism at the Diaspora Affairs Ministry Yogev Karasenty said that the absence of a unified memorial or mechanism to remember Jews killed outside of Israel in antisemitic attacks since the end of the Holocaust has been a shortcoming that needed to be rectified.“Hundreds of Jews have been killed in antisemitic attacks since the end of World War II. From victims of pogroms across the Arab world following the State of Israel’s establishment to individual and community attacks around the world, we can never forget those who were killed simply for being Jewish,” said Karasenty.“As the nation-state of the Jewish people, it our collective duty to preserve and share their memories.”
