The Knesset on Thursday held the “Unto Every Person There is a Name" state ceremony marking Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day.
The theme of this year's Holocaust Remembrance Day is “The War Within the War: the Struggle of the Jews to Survive During the Holocaust."
During the official state ceremony, which was held for the 30th consecutive year, names of Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust were read aloud by Speaker of the Knesset Yuli-Yoel Edelstein (Likud), President of the State Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud), Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, ministers MK Miri Regev (Likud), MK Haim Katz (Likud), MK Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) and Uri Ariel, MKs Zvi Hauser (Blue and White), Yoaz Hendel (Blue and White), Omer Yankelevich (Blue and White), Avi Gabbay (Labor), Amir Peretz (Labor), Rafael Peretz (United Right) and Tamar Zandberg (Meretz), Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, and Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev.
The following individuals lit six candles in memory of those who perished in the Holocaust:
- MK Benny Gantz, second-generation Holocaust survivor.
- MK Bezalel Smotrich and his father, Rabbi Chaim Smotrich, a second-generation Holocaust survivor.
- MK Keren Barak and her mother Tzipora Barak, a second-generation Holocaust survivor.
- MK Evgeny Sova, third-generation Holocaust survivor.
- Rabbi Haim Drukman, a Holocaust survivor from Kuty in Poland (today in Ukraine), and Esther Levy, a Holocaust survivor from Benghazi, Libya.
Also during the ceremony, which was held in Chagall Hall, Israel's chief rabbis read from the Book of Psalms and recited Kaddish, while the IDF's chief cantor recited the El Maleh Rahamim prayer. In addition, videos depicting the stories of Holocaust survivors participating in the ceremony were screened, and the moving testimony of Holocaust survivor Yehudith Ashriel was read to the audience actress Nelly Tagar.
The event also featured performances by the IDF Education Corps Band and singers Lee Biran and David D'Or.
Before the ceremony, guests were invited to light hundreds of memorial candles with the names of Holocaust victims printed on them. Three of the candles were lit by Speaker Edelstein, President Rivlin and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Speaker Edelstein visited the “Building a Memory" exhibit, which features works by artists Baruch Wind and Sara Meltzer, both Holocaust survivors. The exhibit is on display in Chagall Hall.
