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Based on figures from the Jewish Agency and the WZO, 155 non-Israeli Jews have been murdered abroad between 1958 and 2024.
By MATHILDA HELLER NOVEMBER 29, 2024 13:52 Updated: NOVEMBER 29, 2024 13:53
Police at a hostages rally in Central Park, March 24, 2024.
(photo credit: LUKE TRESS)
For the first time in Israel's history, a special joint committee has been established to commemorate the lives of non-Israeli diaspora Jews who were killed in antisemitic attacks, the government announced on Thursday.
The committee has been created to implement Resolution No.492, from May 2023, which pledged the committee's establishment as a "recognition of the need and moral obligation to commemorate the Diaspora Jews who are not citizens of Israel."
According to the government in June, based on figures from the Jewish Agency and the WZO, 155 non-Israeli Jews have been murdered abroad between 1958 and 2024.
This includes nine who have died as a result of antisemitic attacks since October 7.
"The Jews who were murdered in the Diaspora are an inseparable part of the national memory and communion," MK Oded Forer said. "The recognition of Jews who were murdered overseas as victims of hostile acts create a deep connection of Diaspora Jewry to the nation state."
The committee is to be made up of the government, ministries and national institutions such as the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. It will be led by WZO Chair, Yaakov Hagoel, and the Director General of the Diaspora Ministry, Avi Cohen Scali.
The committee will work to formulate a list of victims who are eligible for commemoration., according to a list of criteria. In order to be eligible, the incident must constitute a "hostile act injury" and have been carried out by an "organization or person that is hostile to the Jewish people" or where the aim "was to harm the Jewish people or a Jew for being Jewish."
Other criteria include that the target of the attack was on account of the victim's Jewishness (real or perceived) and that the injury was based on antisemitic or anti-Zionist perception.
Yaakov Hagoel explained earlier this year that the inspiration for the committee came after two Jews were murdered in Djerba, after which he put forward the idea to Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli.
"We are one nation, and the state of the Jews is not just the state of those who live in it," he said.
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"The committee is doing historical justice that strengthens the unbreakable bond between all parts of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. We are all witnesses to the severe wave of anti-Semitism that plagues Diaspora Jewry, especially since the beginning of the 'Iron Swords' war.
The decision to commemorate the Jews in the Diaspora who were murdered on anti-Semitic grounds strengthens the mutual guarantee and shared destiny between the State of Israel and the Jewish people, in all its Diasporas."
The words of victims and their families
Haim Fine, son of Elliot Fine, who was murdered in Cardiff on September 19, 1981, said, "The person who committed the murder was a neighbor of German descent. One Saturday morning, Dad was walking with three of the children to synagogue, and the neighbor murdered him with a knife and severely injured my sister. Following the murder, my mother decided that we would make Aliyah to Israel. Since then, on every Memorial Day, I felt as though we did not belong."
Michele Rosenthal, whose sister Cecil and father David were murdered in the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, said, "My sister and father had a very strong sense of belonging to the community in which they grew up. After the shooting at the synagogue, the entire city came together. My sister and father had a lot of influence on the Jews in the community, and only after their death did I discover just how much [influence they had]. Israel was a significant place in their lives, and I thank Israel very much for choosing to recognize them as victims of hostile acts."
The government invited those interested in putting forward someone for commemoration to send proposals in the form of a letter.
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