Bar/batmitzvah celebrants honour their Shoah ‘twins’

V WE ARE moving into a new era where memories of the Shoah, the darkest days in our recent past, are soon to be replaced by history. We need to ensure the memories are kept alive and can contribute to a collective and accurate testimony.

Yad Vashem UK is committed to telling the story and educating the next generation so that they too can become Guardians of the Memory. So, what do we do?

We carry the name of

Yad Vashem with pride, as a vibrant partner with Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.

We educate about and from the Shoah, helping to fight the everchanging virus of antisemitism and racism.

We start young!

Yad Vashem UK has an inspirational barmitzvah and batmitzvah twinning programme (www.yadvashem. org.uk/twinning) to perpetuate the memories of those who perished in the Shoah, ensuring young people on their special day can share it with a child who was denied a future.

In the past ten years, through Yad Vashem UK, more than 1,100 children have twinned with a victim of the Holocaust, forging a connection and making a real contribution to Jewish continuity.

The bar/batmitzvah celebrant is linked by Yad Vashem with a victim of the Shoah, resulting in their receiving a twinning pack with a page of testimony, providing details about their ‘twin’, a special certificate and a unique Yad Vashem pin.

They also receive candles that can be lit on the Shabbat prior to their special day, or on Yom HaShoah.

To learn more about the bar/batmitzvah programme, email laurie. rosenberg@yadvashem.org.uk.

As part of this programme, we request that bar/ batmitzvah celebrants agree to become Guardians of the Memory (more details at w w w. guardianofthememory.org).

In doing this, they will ensure that they keep the memory of their twin alive.

Each year they will receive a reminder to light a candle on Holocaust Memorial Day and on Yom HaShoah.

These two initiatives are examples of the work Yad Vashem UK undertakes to ensure memory can become testimony in the years ahead.

The next generation can become Guardians of the Memory’