Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization have launched a unique social media campaign in which users will memorialize victims of the Holocaust by uploading the name of one of the 6 million who perished to their Instagram story, using a specially designed filter.
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Through the "Forever in Their Name' campaign," which launches Wednesday, January 26, the organizations hope to leverage social media to cultivate positive engagement with Holocaust history among members of the younger generation, and to foster education and understanding so they can comprehend the magnitude of the most horrific event of the 20th century.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the Red Army's liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp on Jan. 27, 1945.
Those who wish to participate in the global campaign can use a special filter (open this link on a mobile device to see the effect), also available on the Jewish Agency's Hebrew Instagram page, which provides a space for the victim's name and has a memorial candle as its background. The organizations also invite people to browse through the names of the victims on the Yad Vashem website. Participants are encouraged to tag the Instagram pages of the Jewish Agency (@jewishagency) and the World Zionist Organization (@wzo.official).
"Holocaust survivors are dwindling before our eyes and soon there will be no one left to speak about the horrors of the Shoah. Therefore, it is our moral duty to inspire the younger generation to listen, cherish, and continue telling the stories of the heroes and victims for generations to come," said Amira Ahronoviz, CEO and Director General of the Jewish Agency.
In tandem with this social media campaign, the Jewish Agency will host a variety of educational activities geared towards the younger generation on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and throughout the year with the organization's hundreds of Shlichim (Israeli emissaries) in Jewish communities around the world.
"This Instagram campaign is another step in keeping the memory of the Holocaust and its victims alive for the next generation through social media. Sadly, in addition to an increase in global antisemitism, there are also frequent attempts to deny and distort the events that occurred during the Holocaust," said Yaakov Hagoel, chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Acting Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency.
"I call on governments all over the world to dedicate themselves to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and keep Jewish communities secure. Every Jew deserves to live a life without fear."
In the picture attached (credit to the Jewish Agency): Acting Jewish Agency Chairman Hagoel meets with Holocaust survivor Mariah Krupievsky, whose father, Israel Nissman, was murdered by the Nazis in 1941 when they lived in Chernivtsi. In the picture, Hagoel uploaded his name to an Instagram story as part of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization's 'Forever in their Name' campaign.
In their moving meeting, Krupievsky told Hagoel that she never got to meet her father since her mother was pregnant with her at the time of his death. She was born a few months later at the Jewish ghetto in Chernivtsi where she lived with two other families in a small one room apartment. Krupievsky managed to survive the Holocaust and went on to get married and start a family in Ukraine.
Her husband died seven years ago after which she made Aliyah to Israel and now lives in the Joseph Wilf Amigour Senior Housing Residence in Tel Aviv. the Jewish Agency supports these Amigour residences throughout Israel which provides affordable housing to senior citizens, many of whom are Holocaust survivors.
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