The World Zionist Organization (WZO) and the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) will co-host a “Zikaron Basalon” event to commemorate Yom Hashoah – Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day – on April 27. The Zikaron Basalon will be live-streamed online for ten full hours.
Founded by Adi Altschuler in 2010, Zikaron Basalon, (Remembrance in the Living Room) is a grassroots initiative in which individual Holocaust survivors address up to some 50 people — some of whom have never previously met a Holocaust survivor — in private living rooms or community centers, as a means of hearing oral history from someone who was actually part of it.
Participants will hear from Holocaust survivors and other relevant figures in the US, Mexico, Australia, Israel and Poland. Keynote speakers include US Senator James Lankford, European Union Commissioner for Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli, Canadian Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism Prof. Irwin Cotler, and members of parliament from Albania, Greece, the UK and more.
“This is perhaps the last chance to physically interact with a Holocaust survivor for many people around the world,” said Sacha Roytman Dratwa, CEO of CAM. “As Holocaust denial, trivialization and appropriation are rising, it is vital that as many people around the world as possible hear from a Holocaust survivor first-hand about their experiences and the historical truth of the Holocaust.”
Throughout the event, audience members from across five continents will ask the survivors live questions about their experiences during and after the Holocaust, while also hearing from official antisemitism advocates, commissioners, ambassadors, mayors and government members.
“We must then accept the torch of remembrance from them to ensure [for] future generations, who will live in a world without survivors, that the Holocaust is not forgotten, manipulated or denied,” Roytman Dratwa declared.
The Combat Antisemitism Movement is a global coalition engaging more than 360,000 people and 440 organizations from a diverse array of religious, political and cultural backgrounds in the common mission of fighting the world's oldest hatred. For further details and to sign up, visit: https://yomhashoah2022.combatantisemitism.org/
Greer Fay Cashman contributed to this report.