Achievements and Challenges
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ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES Annual Report 2019, Jerusalem ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES Annual Report 2019, Jerusalem Introduction Contents From the Chairman of the Directorate 4 From the Chairman of the Council 5 Highlights of Yad Vashem Activities 6-7 Education 8-25 Remembrance 26-49 Documentation 50-63 Research 64-75 The New Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus 76-77 Public Representatives and Senior Staff 78-81 Financial Highlights 2019 82-83 Yad Vashem Friends Worldwide 84-110 Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, is the leading authority in Holocaust education, remembrance, documentation and research. Yad Vashem is at the forefront of ANNUAL REPORT 2019 unceasing efforts to safeguard and impart the memory of the Holocaust victims, as well as the events of the Shoah period. From the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem works tirelessly to document accurately one of the darkest chapters in the history of humanity, and to grapple effectively with the ongoing ANNUAL REPORT 2019 challenges of keeping Holocaust remembrance 2 relevant today and for future generations. 3 From the Chairman of the Directorate From the Chairman of the Council Dear Friends, in this effort – the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Our longtime Dear Friends, the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem works During 2019, Yad Vashem association with the IDF expanded further in 2019, as April 11, 2020 marks 75 years to ensure that Holocaust commemoration and education faced a challenging range of construction commenced of the new Yad Vashem Holocaust since the liberation of the continues and remains relevant to young people across the developments related to our Education Center at the IDF's central training compound in the Buchenwald concentration world. The painful memories of the devastation that human fundamental goal of ensuring Negev. This state-of-the-art facility will feature our latest and camp. I recall how I travelled depravity unleashed during the Holocaust must serve as a call accurate and meaningful most effective pedagogic approaches and tools. to Germany in 1995 to mark to the whole world to remain ever vigilant in maintaining the Holocaust remembrance Our battle against new adversities must include the the 50-year anniversary of universal values of tolerance and freedom for all. worldwide. Key social, reinforcement of our core commitments and competencies the liberation. That visit was cultural and political trends highlighted the relevance of our in Holocaust documentation and research. Accordingly, my second time in Buchenwald. When I arrived at the camp activities, proficiencies and resources – for Israel, the Jewish during 2019 Yad Vashem continued its determined search for the first time, I was just a young child. I had no father. I had people and all of humanity. for previously unrecorded names of Shoah victims, as no mother. I had no name, no identity. I was just a number. It is a noteworthy paradox that strong interest in the narrative we approach the milestone figure of five million names. Prisoner #117030. At seven-and-a-half years old, what crime and implications of the Shoah continues around the world, Our consistent accumulation of priceless Holocaust-era could I possibly have committed? For my second visit, I came and has even grown in certain contexts, at the very same time documentation, artifacts and artwork serves as the backdrop from my old-new homeland, the State of Israel. My name had that others distort and trivialize the Shoah, or claim that its for the start of construction of the new Moshal Shoah Legacy been given back to me: Israel Meir Lau. I was not a prisoner importance has dimmed. At Yad Vashem, we have honed our Campus, designed to ensure the preservation and safety of anymore. I was the Chief Rabbi of Israel. Such drastic changes ability to discern and interpret this paradox, enabling us to Yad Vashem's crucial tangible foundations of remembrance. had transpired between my first visit and my second. build upon the opportunities, while vigorously grappling with With survivor testimonies constituting a major and everlasting Seeing how completely my life had been tranformed, one the dangers. component of Yad Vashem's identity, we continue to dedicate might have been tempted to say that it was time to open As the disturbing frequency and variety of antisemitic incidents ourselves to convincingly convey the survivors' striking stories. a new page, to start a new chapter. We should forgive and and expressions continued to surge worldwide during 2019, One such effort recently came to eloquent fruition, with the forget. But I cannot forgive, because I am not authorized to do Yad Vashem devised and implemented groundbreaking tools opening in Germany of an acclaimed new exhibition of portrait so. My parents, before they were brutally taken away to their to share its superior Shoah-related knowledge base, insights photographs of Holocaust survivors and their messages to deaths, did not ask me to forgive their murderers. What my and tools with individuals and institutions who are at the mother did ask me to do, was remember. "Remember that future generations, accompanied by a compelling book, both Rabbi Israel Meir Lau forefront of the fight against contemporary antisemitism. This facilitated by Yad Vashem expertise and involvement. you are a Jew," she begged. "Wherever you go, remember that Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council was evident, for example, in our enhanced teaching units on The eternal legacy of the Shoah's victims and survivors will you are a part of a Rabbinic chain." She explained to me that the subject, for use both online and in classrooms. always remain the distinct moral bedrock of Yad Vashem's my father was the 37th generation of a Rabbinic dynasty. "You The global impact of the message "Remembering the mission of remembrance. I am convinced that in a world are the 38th generation. You must continue the chain. Go." Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism" resonated forcefully at the plagued by doubts and uncertainties, this remarkably relevant Those were her last words to me. She did not speak about historic Fifth World Holocaust Forum (WHF), conducted by legacy provides us all with inspiration and fortitude. Your forgiveness. and at Yad Vashem, under the patronage of Israel's President support, even at the most trying of times, enables us to And how could I ever forget? How could I forget the beatings, Rivlin and in partnership with the WHF Foundation. Leading the freezing cold winters, the torture and the hunger? How safeguard the future of our essential memory. ANNUAL REPORT 2019 international experts have noted the momentous potential could I forget the suffering, the faces of the victims whose of many of the words and images that emanated from the lives were cut so short? And yet, under the most horrible Mount of Remembrance on that day. The event magnified Yad circumstances that one can imagine, I also cannot forget the Vashem's already marked prominence in the global sphere as greatness of those Righteous Among the Nations who were a leader in forging and leveraging diverse alliances on behalf like stars in the darkest of nights and risked their own lives of Holocaust remembrance. Shalom, to save others – my own life included. That – I can also never In Israel, where external indicators of Shoah remembrance forget… are frequent, our intensive educational endeavors reveal Eternal remembrance of the events that transpired during an authentic need for new means and frameworks to teach the dark years of the Shoah, that threatened to completely ANNUAL REPORT 2019 and reach young people regarding deeper meanings of the elimate the Jewish people, remains crucial today, for me Avner Shalev Holocaust. Yad Vashem has found an enthusiastic partner personally, for the Jewish people, and for all of humanity. From Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate 4 5 Highlights of Visits and Commemorative Events Yad Vashem’s Activities in 2019 › 1,070,000 visitors › 750 world leaders, dignitaries and official visitors › 135 memorial services Holocaust Education › 70 events › 232,000 students from Israel and abroad attended educational programs Internet Activity › 126,000 Israeli soldiers and security force members participated in educational activities › 54,000 teachers from Israel and around the world took part in conferences and seminars › 5.4 million visits to the website in 8 languages › 22,000 worldwide participants in online courses › 34.7 million video views on YouTube channels in 8 languages since their launch › 17,000 educators, community leaders and opinion shapers attended activities held abroad › 13,500 new Facebook members; 187,500 total › 27,600 new followers on Twitter; 80,800 total Research and Publications › 27,800 new followers on Instagram; 55,000 total › 23 fellowships and awards granted to scholars › 21 international research workshops and symposia Collections › 24 new publications › 7 million new pages of documentation added to the Archives; 217 million pages total › 9th annual International Holocaust Research Book Prize › 350,000 pages of documentation digitized › 4,800,000 names now in the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names Artifacts and Artwork › 35,000 Holocaust-era items donated for safekeeping by 1,200 individuals › 1,150 new artifacts; 42,000 total › 10,000 photographs added to the Photo Archive; 510,000 images total 1,300 new Holocaust survivor testimonies filmed; 133,000 video, audio and written testimonies total › 430 new works of art; 12,100 total › ANNUAL REPORT 2019