Israel marked Yom HaShoah with a series of solemn national ceremonies, honoring the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust through both collective rituals and deeply personal acts of remembrance.
The day’s observances began at the Knesset, where Speaker Amir Ohana opened the annual “Unto Every Person There is a Name” ceremony by lighting a memorial candle for one family: Eli Ben-Yitzhak, born in Morocco; his wife Cecile, born in Algeria; and their son Henri, born in France. All three were deported to Auschwitz and murdered in 1944.
By invoking a single family, the ceremony underscored a central idea of Yom HaShoah—that the incomprehensible scale of the Holocaust is ultimately made up of individual lives, each with a name, a history, and a world that was lost.
“I mention them here so that we remember that the fate of the Jewish people was meant to be the same across the globe,” Ohana said. “We took our destiny into our own hands, established a state, and we are all fighting for it together. And with God’s help, we will prevail.”
Now in its 37th year, the Knesset ceremony was held under the theme “The Jewish Family in the Holocaust.” In light of the current security situation, it was pre-recorded and broadcast at 11:00 a.m., rather than held live as in previous years.
Across Israel, the commemoration took on a national dimension at 10:00 a.m., when a two-minute siren brought the country to a standstill. Traffic halted, pedestrians paused mid-step, and an entire nation stood in silence.
Immediately afterward, the official wreath-laying ceremony took place at Yad Vashem, attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, senior state officials, and Holocaust survivors.
Throughout the day, visitors to the Knesset were invited to light memorial candles in honor of the victims—an act that echoes the broader purpose of the day: to remember not only the magnitude of the loss, but the individuality of each life.
— Israel National News / Flash90