\u201cAlong with the US, and along with other countries with which we are creating alliances that will be spoken about in the future, we are defending ourselves \u2014 we are defending the entire world,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cIsrael stands with the United States at the forefront of the free world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t He said that the two countries \u201chave dealt a crushing blow to the evil regime in Iran\u201d in their two joint operations in the past year.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we hadn\u2019t acted [against Iran\u2019s nuclear, missile, and other military targets],\u201d said Netanyahu, \u201cthe names Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan, and Parchin would likely have been remembered with eternal dread, precisely like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Sobibor.\u201d<\/p>\n Herzog: We didn\u2019t rise from ashes to be consumed by discord<\/p>\n President Isaac Herzog, in his address, called for national unity, saying Israel did not rise from the ashes of the Holocaust only to be consumed by the fire of discord.<\/p>\n The president weaved his address around the story of Holocaust survivor Magda Baratz and her great-grandson Asaf Cafri, an IDF soldier.<\/p>\n Cafri was killed in combat<\/a> in Gaza last year, and Baratz received news of her great-grandson\u2019s death while at the site of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she had once suffered during the Holocaust. She died shortly afterward.<\/p>\n \t \u201cExactly 70 years separated them,\u201d Herzog said, \u201cbut one spirit bound the generations \u2014 a spirit of heroism, of dedication, of determination; a spirit of fighting for the only home of our people \u2014 the State of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n Highlighting Israel\u2019s ongoing military operations, Herzog warned of continued threats from Iran and allied groups targeting civilians. He also called on world leaders to move beyond rhetoric to take decisive action against antisemitism \u201cbefore it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel will continue to preserve Holocaust memory for future generations, even after the last survivors are gone, he concluded.<\/p>\n In honor of the day, the Jerusalem Municipality illuminated the Old City walls with images of the yellow badge, alongside memorial candles and the words \u201cRemember\u201d and \u201cNever Forget.\u201d<\/p>\n \t The capital is home to approximately 6,900 Holocaust survivors, who receive social services throughout the year, according to the municipality.<\/p>\n At the start of 2026, there were 111,000 Holocaust survivors total in Israel, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which began Monday evening and will end on Tuesday evening, is marked by official ceremonies and a two-minute siren during which much of the country comes to a standstill.<\/p>\n \t The day, which also marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, is separate from International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls in January, commemorating the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.<\/p>\n Though the central ceremony at Yad Vashem was pre-recorded this year, due to the fragile security situation, local ceremonies will still be held across the country, as well as the many small living-room gatherings held each year in which Holocaust survivors are invited to tell their story to the public.<\/p>\n At the Auschwitz site on Tuesday, some 50 Holocaust survivors will lead the annual March of the Living, alongside survivors of recent antisemitic terror attacks in the US, UK, and Australia.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tPeople visit the \u2018From Holocaust to Revival\u2019 Holocaust Museum in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, near the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 13, 2026. (Tsafrir Abayov\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/69694-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tAsaf Cafri (left), an IDF reservist who was killed in Gaza on April 25, 2025, and his great-grandmother, Holocaust survivor Magda Baratz, pictured on a billboard set up in Rishon Lezion in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day before his death. (Oren Dai\/Rishon Lezion Municipality)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-13-at-8.26.14-PM-640x400.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tThe walls of Jerusalem\u2019s Old City are lit up for Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 13, 2026. (Jerusalem Municipality)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/F260413TA214-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tAn annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai in southern Israel, April 13, 2026. (Tsafrir Abayov\/Flash90)<\/p>\n
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David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel<\/p>\n
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