Holocaust
The Names Database is an international undertaking led by
Yad Vashem, from Jerusalem. It is the attempt to reconstruct the names and life
stories of all the Jews who perished in the Shoah. It is the final sign of
respect we can show them. We estimate that the number of Jews commemorated in
the database to date is close to three million. The database is comprised of
Pages of Testimony, historical documentation and other sources.
Millions of names that appear in historical documents have
not yet been identified nor recorded in the database; many additional names
still linger in the memories of survivors or in the lore of their families.
Building the database is a work in progress. With the Database online, we are
urging Jewish families around the world to check the database for the names of
Shoah victims that they know, and to submit unrecorded names via the site. This
is a race against time – we must redeem as many names as possible before the
generation that remembers them is no longer with us.
Join us and help ensure that every victim of the Shoah has a
place in our collective memory.
For more information about the Central Database, click here.
To raise money for Carmei
Ha’ir, a soup kitchen/restaurant in Israel that serves 500 meals a day to the
needy, Joanne Caras and her family spent two years collecting recipes and
stories from Holocaust survivors, compiling them into an amazing cookbook. “If
these recipes were not collected soon, many of them, along with the courageous
accompanying stories that came from all over the world, would have been lost
forever to future generations” explains Caras. “Each story and each recipe is a
miracle!” To find out more about the compelling cookbook and fundraising
project, SocialAction.com interviewed Caras.
A Spanish musical based on the diary of Anne Frank has split
those charged with protecting the legacy of the young Holocaust victim, including
her last living relative. He and other critics say a format meant to entertain is
unacceptable and will stray from the brutal truth of her book and its tragic story,
while backers insist it will help spread Anne’s message of tolerance. “The Diary
of Anne Frank: A Song to Life” is set to open in Madrid on February 28, 2008. What
do you think? Is the sound of music suitable for the Diary of Anne Frank? Email
socialaction@jflmedia.com with your
opinion.
Hillel recently presented Foreign Affairs Committee Chair
Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) with 12,000 signatures petitioning Congress, Europe,
and the U.N. to support sanctions against Iran. President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad
is a Holocaust denier who has repeatedly called for the end of Israel. Lantos
has personal ties to Hillel: In 1947 the Jewish campus organization sponsored
his immigration to America from Hungary, when he was a “penniless survivor of
the Holocaust.”
Anti-Semitism is on the rise in France. A new exhibition in
Paris on deported French Jewish children during the Holocaust (11,400) will
help young people (French, Arab, and African) understand what really happened
during the Shoah in France by viewing the photos and documents firsthand.
Wiley Miller has a poignant strip about a holocaust survivor
explaining his tattoo to a young child.
