Unto Every Person There Is A Name
Public Recitation of Names of Holocaust Victims in Israel and Abroad on Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day
Unto Every Person There Is A Name is a program of Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Education Center based in Jerusalem, Israel. Yad Vashem’s mission is to lead the documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, and to convey the chronicles of this singular Jewish and human event to every person in Israel, to the Jewish people, and to every significant and relevant audience worldwide.
Every single victim of the Holocaust had a name.
The vast number of Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust – some six million men, women and children – is beyond human comprehension. We are therefore liable to lose sight of the fact that each life that was brutally ended belonged to an individual, a human being endowed with feelings, thoughts, ideas and dreams, whose entire world was destroyed, and whose future was erased.
The annual recitation of names of victims on Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day is one way of posthumously restoring the victims’ names, of commemorating them as individuals. We seek in this manner to honor the memory of the victims, to grapple with the enormity of the murder, and to combat Holocaust denial and distortion.
B’nai B’rith International, and the B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem, is honored to work with Yad Vashem—the World Holocaust Remembrance Center and an International Committee annually on this program to advance Holocaust remembrance, awareness and education.
Each year there is a designated theme selected by the International Committee. Materials are provided by Yad Vashem and the committee. B’nai B’rith is represented on the international committee by Alan Schneider, director of the B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem.
Unto Every Person There Is A Name
-Zelda
Unto every person there is a name
Bestowed on him by God
And given to him by his parents.
Unto every person there is a name
Accorded him by his stature and type of smile
And style of dress.
Unto every person there is a name
Conferred by the mountains
And the walls which surround him.
Unto every person there is a name
Granted him by Fortune’s Wheel,
Or that which neighbors call him.
Unto every person there is a name
Assigned him by his failings
Or contributed by his yearnings.
Unto every person there is a name
Given to him by his enemies
Or by his love.
Unto every person there is a name
Derived from his celebrations
And his occupation.
Unto every person there is a name
Presented him by the seasons
And his blindness.
Unto every person there is a name
Which he receives from the sea
And is given to him by his death
B'nai B'rith International is proud to be the North American Partner in this important effort.
We encourage all our members and supporters to help in ensuring that victims of the Shoah are not forgotten by bringing the Unto Every Person There Is A Name Program to your community.
We are here to help!
If you would like to bring this program to your community or bring the reading of names of the victims to an existing commemoration, we can assist with resource materials. Please contact cji@bnaibrith.org for assistance.