Gett taxi drivers distribute candles for Holocaust Remembrance Day
Aiming to honor the lives of those who perished in the Holocaust, Gett taxi drivers teamed up with a nonprofit organization to distribute biographical memorial candles to passengers on Sunday.
A day prior to Holocaust Remembrance Day, about 50 taxi drivers in the country’s major cities – including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheba – handed out hundreds of candles, in partnership with the Shem VeNer (Name and Candle) organization.
The candles serve as personal memorials for individuals who died during the Holocaust, and include basic details about the victim, like their name, year of birth and death, and a short biography, according to Shem VeNer. In order to receive more information about the person’s life, candle recipients can scan a bar code with their smartphones and will be directed to a website with further details.
Sunday’s effort served as a pilot, with the intention of broadening the distribution of the candles each year and making them part of a national tradition, a statement from the partners explained.
“In order to implement a new tradition, it is first and foremost important to reach the citizens of Israel,” said Nora Siperman, CEO of Shem VeNer. “We know that, through the huge taxi company Gett, we will be able to quickly reach a diverse community throughout the nation.”
Based in Tel Aviv, Gett is a popular on-demand mobility company through which passengers can order taxis wherever and whenever.
“With their help, we will be able to ensure that many citizens in the country will be exposed to the project, will take the candles, at the end of their journey, home, will light them with their families and friends and will help us ensure that the memory of the Holocaust will remain forever and ever, even when Holocaust survivors no longer remain to give their testimonies and tell personal stories,” Siperman said.
Thus far, she said, Shem VeNer has been distributing candles in Israeli schools in cooperation with the Education Ministry. This Holocaust Remembrance Day, the organization is distributing 800,000 candles among the country’s students, she said.
“Now we will be able to say that our comprehensive project is expanding and is going to become part of the public space of taxis as well,” Siperman said.