MARTIN BERLINER

WHAT IS THE YELLOW CANDLE PROJECT?

YELLOW CANDLES, LIKE the Jewish memorial candle traditionally lit on the anniversary of a person’s death, will be distributed in the community. Each candle is accompanied by a small card, on which is printed the name of a single victim of the Holocaust, their age and the date and location of their death. The yellow candles are lit on the erev of Yom HaShoah and we ask that people upload a picture of their lit candle to social media. In this way, a personal and singular act of remembrance becomes a shared experience, when tens of thousands of yellow candle pictures are uploaded. With many VIPs taking part, from Lord Sugar to the Prime Minster, the results were overwhelming last Yom HaShoah, with millions seeing yellow candles across their social media feeds, leading to #yellowcandle trending on Twitter.

We became aware of the Yellow Candle Project in 2018, when Maccabi GB ordered 3,000 candles to distribute to Maccabi affiliates. We soon learnt about the amazing volunteers, led by Paul Harris, Nick Gendler and Samantha Cohen, who first brought 3,000 yellow candles to the UK in 2017.

The Maccabi movement was founded on the roots of antisemitism, when Jews could not join sports clubs because they were Jewish. We have experience at Maccabi GB of incubating, developing and sustaining a meaningful project for the community — Streetwise and the Maccabi GB Community Fun Run are just two examples. We were sure we could add value to the Yellow Candle Project.

In 2019, with the support of the fantastic volunteers, 30,000 yellow candles were distributed and for 2020 we have ordered 100,000, to be distributed both in the UK and also to be trialled by other Maccabi organisations around the world, with a view to making this a global initiative. In time we want every Jewish person to associate “yellow candle” with Yom HaShoah.