More: Obama Visits Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem (PHOTO)

Obama lays wreath at Yad Vashem Memorial

On a visit Friday to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial located in Jerusalem, President Barack Obama emphasized the “choice” people face when confronted with evil.

“We have a choice to acquiesce to evil or make real our solemn vow — never again,” Obama said, according to a White House pool report. “We have the choice to ignore what happens to others or to act on behalf of others.”

Obama also stressed the importance of instilling compassion in younger generations.

“Out sons and daughters are not born to hate,” he said. “They are taught to hate. Let us fill their young hearts with the same understanding and compassion that we hope others have for us.”

From Associated Press:

JERUSALEM — Wrapping up a three day visit to Israel, President Barack Obama paid respects to its heroes and to victims of the Holocaust, solemnly reaffirming the Jewish state’s right to exist.

Accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, Obama laid wreaths at the graves of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism who died in 1904 before realizing his dream of a Jewish homeland, and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995.

He also toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, declaring after that the memorial illustrates the depravity to which man can sink but also serves as a reminder of the “righteous among nations who refused to be bystanders.”

Today’s stop at Herzl’s grave, together with Thursday’s visit to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, the ancient Hebrew texts, were symbolic stops for Obama that acknowledged that the rationale for Israel’s existence rests with its historical ties to the region and with a vision that predated the Holocaust. Obama was criticized in Israel for his 2009 Cairo speech in which he gave only the example of the Holocaust as reason for justifying Israel’s existence.

“Here on your ancient land, let it be said for all the world to hear,” Obama said at Yad Vashem Friday, in a clear response to that criticism. “The state of Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust, but with the survival of a strong Jewish state of Israel, such a holocaust will never happen again.”

Your text to link…

A delegation of Muslim imams from France pray during a memorial ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum in Jerusalem, November 13, 2012. The religious leaders later visited the graves of those shot by a terrorist in Toulouse in March 2012.

My Note: Truly snatching some victory from a vicious tragedy

jpost.com

Police on Tuesday arraigned 31-year-old Elhanan Estrovich, a resident of Bnei Brak, for spray painting anti- Zionist hate slogans on the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum on June 11, as well as similar vandalism attacks on Ammunition Hill and the Jordan Valley.

During the police investigation of Estrovich, the young haredi man said that he would have blown up the Knesset, the courts and IDF bases if he could.

Police arrested four haredi suspects from Jerusalem, Ashdod and Bnei Brak on suspicion of spray painting anti-Zionist hate slogans at the Yad Vashem last month. The suspects, members of Natorei Karta, were found in possession of large amounts of texts condemning Zionism and Israel; PLO flags; and paint. Texts suspected to be incitement to hatred were also found on computers. Natorei Karta is a small but vocal, extreme anti-Zionist sect, which believes that the founding of the State of Israel, without specific divine intervention, was a sin.

jta.org

he Swedish rescuer Raoul Wallenberg was born 100 years ago this summer, and his centennial is being commemorated with events in many cities across Europe and North America. On June 26, a symposium in his memory was held at Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research in Jerusalem.

Wallenberg, whose birth date is Aug. 4, 1912, is one of the approximately 24,000 individuals who have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, the honor bestowed by Yad Vashem and the State of Israel upon non-Jews who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.

Why is his centennial the cause of so much commemorative activity?

Certainly part of the answer lies in Wallenberg’s tragic fate. Early in 1945, after having been involved in rescuing Jews in Budapest since the previous summer, Wallenberg was arrested by the conquering Soviets.

Explanations ranging from the banal to cloak and dagger have been advanced as to why he was arrested. It could simply be that as a foreigner carrying a variety of currencies and official documents on his person, he may have aroused suspicion. It could be that as a Wallenberg, whose family like many neutral Swedes had engaged in business with Germany during the war, he was an intentional target of the Soviet security apparatus. And it may even be that the Soviets suspected that he was being used as an intermediary between the Nazis and Western Allies to arrange a separate peace, so that both sides could then turn against them.

None of these reasons, even if one may be the correct one, sufficiently explains why Wallenberg was held in captivity after the war ended, and why neither the Soviets nor their successor regime in Russia have provided the full documentation they most likely still hold regarding his fate. All we know for certain is that at some point, Wallenberg died in Soviet captivity.

idfspokesperson.com

The German Military Chief of Staff, General Volker Wieker, toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Jerusalem earlier today. The IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, accompanied General Weiker on his tour, which included visiting Yad Va-Shem, the Hall of Names and the museums’ child commemoration wing, Yad La-Yeled.

Later, General Wieker and Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi placed a wreath to commemorate those killed in the Holocaust in a ceremony that took place in the Hall of Remembrance.

[…]

The German Military Chief of Staff, General Volker Wieker