Yad Vashem head Avner Shalev to resign at end of the year

Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev will be stepping down at the end of the year after 27 years in this role, he said Sunday.

In a letter to Yad Vashem employees, Shalev, 82, recounted the developments he has advanced at the national Holocaust remembrance center, including the establishment of the International School for Holocaust Studies, the International Institute for Holocaust Research, a new museum complex and the Museum of Holocaust Art.

Shalev’s replacement will be nominated by Higher Education Minister Ze’ev Elkin.

“Clearly, it was not easy for me to reach this decision, which has entailed thorough self-examination,” Shalev wrote in his letter.

He said that during his tenure he had “led Yad Vashem’s dedicated team of managers and employees in fundamentally transforming the ways in which our institution’s historical and moral mission is fulfilled.”

Shalev went on to detail his other achievements, including the addition during his time as chairman of more than two and a half million names of Holocaust victims to the Yad Vashem database, which now totals 4.8 million names.

“We have located and accessed hundreds of millions of documents, and collected tens of thousands of artifacts and works of art, and thousands of photographs and films. We have recognized thousands of Righteous Among the Nations and disseminated the information and knowledge we have gained to numerous audiences, via a variety of frameworks in Israel and around the world, and through many channels of digital media.”

Despite these accomplishments, Yad Vashem has become embroiled in several controversies in recent months.

At the World Holocaust Forum staged in January this year with the participation of numerous world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, inaccurate and misleading videos were used in presentations broadcast during the event that obscured the role of the Soviet Union in the occupation of Poland and its non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany formulated in 1939.

Allegations were made at the time that pressure had been exerted by Moscow to influence the narrative of materials used at the event, although Yad Vashem and the World Holocaust Forum Foundation denied this.

More recently, Yad Vashem put 107 employees on unpaid leave for four months, officially due to financial constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but seemingly due to previous financial difficulties as well.