🇮🇱 National Observances and Traditions:
🕯️ Opening Ceremony at Yad Vashem
The evening before Yom HaShoah, a state ceremony takes place at Yad Vashem (the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem).

• Six torches are lit by Holocaust survivors, symbolizing the six million Jews murdered.
• The ceremony includes prayers, readings, and performances of songs and poems.

🔊 Two-Minute Siren

• At 10:00 AM on Yom HaShoah, (Thursday), a two-minute siren sounds across the entire country.
• All activity stops: people stand still, traffic halts on highways, and everyone pauses in silence to honor the victims.

🕍 Religious Services

Synagogues hold memorial services, reciting Kaddish (mourner’s prayer), reading names of victims, and sometimes the El Maleh Rachamim prayer.

🏫 Education and Youth Involvement

• Schools hold assemblies and educational programs about the Holocaust.
• Many students visit Holocaust museums or participate in discussions with survivors.
• Israeli youth often participate in the “March of the Living”—a journey from Auschwitz to Birkenau in Poland to honor Holocaust victims and survivors.

📺 Media and Public Life:

• TV and radio programming is dedicated to Holocaust documentaries, survivor interviews, and remembrance content.
• Entertainment venues, bars, and public events are closed or subdued in tone.
• Flags on public buildings are lowered to half-mast.

The date that Israel commemorates Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) on the 27th of Nisan and not on January 27, which is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and here’s why:

📅 Why the 27th of Nisan?

• The date was chosen by the Israeli government in 1951 to fall between two significant Jewish events:
• Passover (which celebrates freedom from slavery), and
• Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and terror victims), followed closely by Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day).
• This creates a meaningful arc: from slavery → to tragedy → to resistance → to statehood.

🔥 Link to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Yom HaShoah is also closely linked—symbolically—to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which began in April 1943. Though the actual uprising started on April 19, the 27th of Nisan was selected to honor the spirit of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.

🕯️ A Nationally Jewish Context

Unlike the UN-designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan 27)—which marks the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet forces in 1945—Yom HaShoah reflects a uniquely Israeli and Jewish historical and emotional narrative:

• It centers on both the memory of the victims and the heroism of the resistance.
• It's tied to the Jewish calendar, which makes it more culturally resonant for Israeli and religious communities.

So today, because it's the 27th of Nisan, Israel pauses to remember, mourn, and honor.

Photo: Courtesy of the Municipality of Jerusalem  Use according to Section 27 A