Yellow Candles spread light on Yom HaShoah
On the eve of Yom HaShoah, we can all join in a communal, yet also personal, act of remembrance
Next week, as the evening of Wednesday April 27 sets in, Jews around the world will start to mark Yom HaShoah, the annual Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Day. The community will come together to commemorate the lives of all those lost in the Holocaust, ensuring the horrors of the Shoah are never forgotten.
Supporting this remembrance, as in previous years, Maccabi GB has rolled out its landmark Yellow Candle project, enabling thousands of people to light a yellow memorial candle in their homes, synagogues, and community centres.
This will not just be a commemoration of the past. By lighting these candles, the Jewish community will also spread awareness of the harm of antisemitism and hate. It will mourn the devastation such ideologies can cause and, by spreading light, take a positive stand for the future.
The theme of this year’s project is ‘Remembrance to Renewal’, focusing on the triumph of the continuity of Jewish life. To promote this message, two sunflower seeds will be provided with each candle.
Participants will be invited to plant the seeds in the Yellow Candle tin once their candle has been used, with each flower acting as a symbol of growth after tragedy.
The Yellow Candle project is particularly powerful, as it serves to commemorate the individual victims of the Holocaust, connecting each participant with one person who was killed.
Each Yellow Candle is accompanied by a biographical card, carrying information from the Yad Vashem archives, including the name, age, date, a photograph and the place of death of this particular person.
On the evening of April 27, each participant will light their candle and take part in a deeply personal and communal act of commemoration.
Those involved will be able to share an image of their candle and name card on social media with the hashtag #yellowcandle, creating a virtual memorial uniting Jewish communities across the world.
The Yellow Candle website also features practical and age-appropriate resources to increase awareness and knowledge of the Holocaust, enhancing Holocaust education.
The Yellow Candle project is farreaching, enabling Yom HaShoah to be marked appropriately across the country — and even globally.
In total, more than 30,000 candles have been ordered so far by households in the UK and worldwide, communal organisations across the country, Jewish residential care homes throughout the UK and schools.
International organisations have also participated, enabling the Yellow Candle project to light up the memories of Holocaust victims in Hungary, Sweden, Spain, America, the United Arab Emirates and even in Bahrain.
In a moving symbol of renewal and revival, one family, the Gabriels, have decided to twin the barmitzvah of their son Yishai with that of ten-year-old Yeshayahu Liebermann, who perished in the Shoah and so never had the chance to celebrate his own barmitzvah.
As Gideon, Yishai’s father, says, “When we found out that the date of our son Yishai’s barmitzvah coincided with the end of Yom HaShoah, we thought it would be an excellent opportunity to help our family and guests commemorate and remember the lives lost in the Holocaust.
“We contacted Yad Vashem in the UK and have now been given the name of a boy who was murdered in Auschwitz aged ten — Yeshayahu Liebermann.
“But we wanted our guests to be able to participate too — and so we contacted Maccabi GB who manage the Yellow Candle project and arranged to have 100 candles ready for our simchah.
“We will be asking all our guests to light these memorial candles along with their Friday night candles as a way of remembering all those who perished.
“By bringing the Shoah down to an individual person, a name card next to the candle, we hope it will add extra meaning to all of our Shabbat experiences.”
Residents at the Nightingale Hammerson residential home in south west London will also participate, and have expressed their thanks to Maccabi GB for the opportunity to be involved.
The fact that this initiative resonates with barmitzvah boys and care home residents alike highlights the intergenerational power of the project.
Having flourished for more than 80 years, Maccabi GB is part of a global movement, operating in more than 70 countries, with a mission to support the long-term future of British Jewry, while promoting Jewish identity and the centrality of Israel.
In the seven years since the Yellow Candle project was launched in the UK, lighting a Yellow Candle on Yom HaShoah has become a landmark moment in the Jewish calendar and an integral part of Holocaust commemoration.
The project has seen more than 250 organisations, schools, community centres, youth movements and synagogues participate across the community, with thousands of yellow candles distributed yearly to promote Maccabi GB’s important message — “never forget”.
Maccabi GB’s Yellow Candle project will enable thousands across the globe to mark Yom HaShoah in a meaningful way.
By lighting a candle to honour the lives of those who perished in the Holocaust, we take a stand against the tragic human cost of hatred and campaign for a future of light, renewal and, with the sunflower seeds, growth.
Ashley Lerner, the CEO of Maccabi GB, says: “It is important that each and every year we remember those murdered in the Shoah.
“It is our aim that as many of the community as possible light a Yellow Candle to remember the individuals whose lives were so cruelly taken from us.
“The Maccabi GB Yellow Candle project unites families, school children, care home residents and communities to ensure that we never forget.
“Through this project, individuals like Yeshayahu Liebermann, who never got to celebrate his barmitzvah, will not be forgotten, their memory kept aflame by our Yellow Candles.”
Maccabi GB would like to thank all the partners and sponsors who have made Yellow Candle possible this year.