In the UK we promote Holocaust education and awareness by sponsoring an annual seminar for UK teachers and informal educators at the International School of Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem; we promote Yad Vashem’s educational philosophy through our unique travelling exhibitions, learning resources, and through the use of Yad Vashem educators and public speakers; and we put names to the faceless victims of the Holocaust and remember them through our Guardian of the Memory Campaign and our Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah twinning projects.
Yad Vashem aims to strengthen commitment to Jewish continuity, to protect the basic values of humankind by fighting discrimination, bigotry, indifference and hatred, to remember the six million Jewish victims and to educate future generations.
Over the years, Yad Vashem has adopted a multifaceted approach to include not only commemoration and documentation but also dissemination through education, research and publications. Yad Vashem possesses the largest repository of Holocaust documentation, including a computerised database of the names of Jewish Holocaust victims. Each year, Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies hosts tens of thousands of educators and pupils from Israel and abroad at its various educational programmes. The world-renowned International Institute for Holocaust Research promotes and publishes innovative research and holds international conferences.
As there are now fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors alive each year, Yad Vashem faces the challenge of how to meaningfully impart their legacy in the 21st century. In order to meet this challenge, Yad Vashem’s historical museum complex was designed and built using modern, innovative technologies and tools, to commemorate the Holocaust with depth, meaning and relevance for generations to come. The museum is visited by over one million people every year.
Yad Vashem has the largest collection in the world of archives and documents relating to the Holocaust.
Yad Vashem UK Foundation works to support and publicise the resources of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
Yad Vashem UK Foundation raises funds to help the International School for Holocaust Studies, and in particular, the educational seminars that are run in Jerusalem, attended by 300,000 people each year.
Yad Vashem UK Foundation runs an ongoing varied programme of events, to raise funds for Yad Vashem and for its educational work, and to promote Holocaust education in the UK.
Honorary Patron
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis
Honorary President
Sir Ben Helfgott MBE z’l
The Trustees
Simon Bentley (Chairman)
Dame Helen Hyde DBE
David Lander
Geoff Melamet
Marc Ovits
Harriet Morris-Sloane
Jacques Weisser BEM
Staff
Esther Bentley (Education)
Evelynne Garbacz (Office Manager)
Sandra Gold (Administrator)
Sophie Greenfield
Helen Kon (Education)
Rabbi Michael Pollak (Director of Education)