Thread by @TodayIsrael

April 8, 1959: Israel's Knesset officially establishes Yom Hashoa when it passed the Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day Law.

THREAD

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1/ By the time the State of Israel was established in May 1948, 3 years had passed since the end of the WW2 and the Holocaust. Given the enormity of the crime, it became difficult to choose a single day as the most appropriate to commemorate this dark time in recent history.

2/ In fact, in 1947, even before Israel was established, the Chief Rabbinate of Mandatory Palestine set up a committee to think of a date for a memorial. They thought to relate it to the annihilation of the Warsaw Jewish community, which before the war at 500,000 Jews.

3/ They proposed the 8th of Av, because on that date Warsaw's Jews started to be sent to the death camps. Another date was the the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which was the eve of Pesach, 1943.

4/ Both dates were rejected since 8th of Av is just before the mourning date of the 9th of Av, and the holiday of Pesach was not deemed appropriate.

5/ In Dec 1949, the Rabbinate decreed that Holocaust Remembrance Day would be the 10th of Tevet, a day of mourning and fasting already commemorating the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem in 587BCE.

6/ Thus, the 1st Holocaust Remembrance Day took place on Dec 28, 1949. The ashes and bones of 1000s of Jews were brought to Israel from the Flossenburg Concentration Camp near Munich. They were placed in a crypt in a Jerusalem cemetery - the Chamber of the Holocaust

7/ The next year, Dec 1950, 70 ceremonies were held around the country. They mostly took the form of funerals in which artifacts, ashes and bones were brought from Europe and buried in Israel. The Knesset did not have a special ceremony.

8/ In March 1951 however, the Knesset decided to set about choosing a new date for Holocaust Remembrance Day. 3 new dates were proposed:

- 10 Tevet
- Passover
- Sept 1: The day WW2 broke out

9/ In Apr 1951, the Knesset approved the 27th of Nissan - a week after Passover. This is the date today.

10/ Despite the Knesset's decision, the Rabbinate continued telling people to observe the 10th of Tevet as Holocaust Remembrance Day for victims whose date of death was unknown. That date is still observed that way, though its association over the years has diminished.

11/ On 27 of Nissan (May 3, 1951) a Holocaust Remembrance Day took shape as a more official, and less religious, ceremony.

12/ The main event that year was at the Holocaust Crypt on Mt Zion, but Zionist leaders gave speeches, the Post Office issued a commemorative envelope, and a statue of Mordechai Anielewicz was unveiled at Yad Mordechai (as the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising)

13/ In 1952, a memorial forest was planted, and six beacons were lit, in memory of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis. This has become a regular feature of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel.

14/ In 1953, the Knesset passed a law creating @yadvashem, the official Israeli memorial institution for Holocaust victims. Schools were instructed on that year's remembrance day to discuss the subject of the Holocaust with their students.

15/ In 1955, @yadvashem began documenting the victims of the Holocaust, and that year, Israel's entire leadership (govt, judges, dignitaries) took part in a memorial event in the forest planted outside Jerusalem.

16/ Finally, on April 8, 1959, the Knesset passed a law officially establishing Holocaust Memorial Day - Yom Hashoa - in law, and sanctioning official ceremonies throughout the country, as well as a 2-min moment of silence, indicated by sirens.

17/ Since 1959, non-solemn entertainment has been banned in theatres and movie theatres on 27 Nissan. From that year, flags were lowered to half-mast, and a WW2 veteran parade took place in Tel Aviv (that did not last long).

18/ In 1971, Israeli TV started broadcasting special programming, and today those that do air on that date show Holocaust material. Since '88, on Yom Hashoa people from around the world participate in the March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau on that date.

19/ Finally, in 2005 the UN General Assembly passed Res. 60/7 marking Jan 27 (anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz) as Intl Holocaust Remembrance Day. The year before, Israel made that date the official Day of Struggle Against Antisemitism.

20/ Thanks to @elongilad for the article on @haaretzcom haaretz.com/the-history-of… from which this information was taken.

This year, Yom Hashoa begins the evening of April 20, 2020 (the day after the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising)

Finally, wishing everyone a chag kasher v'sameach!
#ChagSameach
#HappyPesach

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