Tech Becomes Teaching Tool On Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day

In Israel, Holocaust Remembrance Day for 2024 begins at sundown on May 5. This year it is being marked in the shadow of the October 7 attack – the largest slaughter of Jews since the Nazis and their collaborators murdered six million – and as Jewish groups worldwide sound the alarm on spiraling antisemitism in their communities. 

And this year, some of the world’s largest and most influential tech companies are stepping in to help mark the solemn day and teach the younger generations of the horrors experienced by the victims who survived and their loved ones who did not. 

The national day of commemoration is marked every year, beginning in the evening of 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. The first evening sees memorial services being held across the country, with a central remembrance ceremony at Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.

The following morning is punctuated by a siren at 10am, which wails throughout Israel for two minutes in memory of the victims. Memorial services continue throughout the day until sundown.

Zikaron BaSalon (Living Room Remembrance) is one of the most intimate commemorations in Israel, with Holocaust survivors invited into private homes to share their memories and experiences with people of all ages and backgrounds. 

And for the second consecutive year, Israeli-created Waze (now owned by Google) is showing all Zikaron BaSalon events in a user’s immediate vicinity, listing some 1,200 locations in total across Israel. 

Beginning May 1 and running until the end of the commemoration in the evening of May 6, drivers using Waze were receiving pop-up notifications to raise awareness of the gatherings and to encourage Israelis to attend. 

Each location pin is clickable, allowing people to register for the individual events. And according to Zikaron BaSalon, the event is attended annually by around 2 million people across the country. 

“Living Room Remembrance is a social initiative that enables the commemoration of the Holocaust and heroism in a meaningful, personal and relevant way,” said Zikaron BaSalon co-founder and Co-CEO Moran Zipper. 

“The continuation of this partnership with Waze allows everyone to find the gathering closest to their home, see the salons on their commutes and choose to participate in something significant on this important day,” she said. 

Waze General Manager Gai Berkovich also stressed the importance of the partnership, saying it allowed “a powerful connection between generations” that ensures the stories of the people and the events of the Holocaust are not forgotten. 

“We’re proud to partner with Zikaron BaSalon for the second year in a row. Holocaust survivor gatherings offer Israelis the powerful experience of connecting with living witnesses, experiencing firsthand the deep courage and resilience that must never be forgotten – storytelling that is more important now than ever before,” he said. 

Israeli startup Verbit, meanwhile, is using its platform to transcribe the oral testimonies of survivors, and developed new technology to deal with old, low-quality recordings. 

“It is of utmost importance to document history in order to make such events accessible in Israel and around the world, in order to ensure that they do not recur,” said Verbit CEO Yair Amsterdam.

The annual day is also being marked amid a massive increase in antisemitic incidents in Western countries. A new report issued jointly by Tel Aviv University (TAU) in Israel and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the US shows that hatred against Jews was already rising before October 7, after which there was a “particularly steep increase.”

The report states that there was an increase in the number of antisemitic incidents in in many countries with sizeable Jewish populations, including the Brazil, France, the UK and the US.

“October 7 helped spread a fire that was already out of control,” the report says.

Meta-owned Instagram is also returning to mark the memorial day with a project from the three previous years, with more than 20 Israeli and Jewish content creators sharing stories of Holocaust survivors on their pages. 

The content creators include actor Michael Rapaport, Game of Thrones actress Ania Bukstein and Eretz Nehederet star Orel Tsabari. 

The “Sharing  Memories” project is a collaboration with Latet, a non-profit umbrella organization for 180 NGOs fighting poverty and food insecurity in more than 100 locations around Israel. 

“On this important day, you can get a rare glimpse into the testimony of a survivor through personal and heartfelt meetings, and follow the lives of the survivors in Israel, where some of them experience a reality of poverty and great loneliness,” said Latet. 

This year, the testimonies include those from Holocaust survivors who were victims of the October 7 attack in southern Israel and whose loved ones were wounded, murdered and abducted to Gaza. The testimonies are also being shared in Hebrew on Meta-owned Facebook, and in English on the Latet website. 

“Four years ago, we began meeting Holocaust survivors who open their hearts and share their darkest and most difficult moments – for us to never forget,” Meta Israel CEO Adi Soffer Teeni said in the Times of Israel. 

“But this year was particularly painful – none of the Holocaust survivors we met even imagined that the horrific memories of the Holocaust would resurface, and this time in their own home.”

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