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Holocaust ‘Book of Names’ to be inaugurated at the UN underscores the individual identities of the 6 million
When Yad Vashem was created in 1953 on the slopes of Jerusalem’s Mount of Remembrance to commemorate the Holocaust, its founders understood that one of the central functions of the institution would be to document the names of the 6 million Jewish victims.
It was seen as a moral imperative: to demonstrate that behind the almost inconceivable number were real individuals whose lives were cut short by the Nazis.
Now, to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, Yad Vashem is inaugurating its Book of Names — a monumental installation containing the names of 4,800,000 victims of the Shoah — at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Among those participating in the Book of Names opening ceremony on Jan. 26 will be U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Gilad Erdan, and Yad Vashem’s chairman, Dani Dayan, a former consul general of Israel in New York.
“The Shoah was the murder of 6 million individual Jews. Each one who died deserves to be remembered as an individual, and not only as part of a nameless collective,” Dayan said.
The Book of Names will be on display at the United Nations for a month. Afterward it will be transferred to its permanent location at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, in Jerusalem, where it will be open to public viewing in time for Yom HaShoah, the Israeli and Jewish Holocaust remembrance day, in April.
The installation is an updated version of the Yad Vashem Book of Names that has been on permanent display at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland since 2017. The new version, which contains 500,000 additional names, stands 6.5 feet high and approximately 3.3 feet wide. Its total length is 26.5 feet. The massive volume lists the names of the victims in alphabetical order and, where the information is known, includes their birth dates, hometowns and places of death. The book has blank pages at the end symbolizing the approximately 1 million victims whose names are not yet recorded.
The names in the Book are sourced from Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names.
“We have been collecting the names of the individual Holocaust victims since 1954, mainly through Pages of Testimony,” said Alexander Avram, director of Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names and the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names. The Pages of Testimony are one-page forms that survivors and remaining family and friends complete with the names and biographical information of the victims.
“Starting about 20 years ago, we have been able to go beyond these pages and look to thousands of other sources for names,” Avram continues. “These include lists of victims produced by federal archives or organizations in different countries, deportation lists compiled by researchers and museums, and names gathered by memorial sites and institutions. We have also sourced hundreds of thousands of names from our own collections.”
The special team that finds the names and archives them in Yad Vashem’s names database is challenged by the fact that the Nazis either tried to eliminate traces of their crimes against humanity by destroying records, or never registered Jews’ names in the first place — especially in Eastern Europe.
“Few ghettos had censuses or name registrations,” noted Avram. “Hungarian transport lists had numbers, but not names — and they were all taken to extermination sites. Similarly, there were only numerical reports of the Jews killed by the Einsatzgruppen [the mobile paramilitary killing squads organized by the Nazis]. At Auschwitz, 900,000, men, women and children were sent straight to their deaths. Only the names of those sent to slave labor there were registered on cards, and the Nazis destroyed most of these records.”
The Book of Names is one component of Yad Vashem’s new strategic plan to improve and increase Holocaust remembrance in Israel and the world at a time when the number of survivors is dwindling and Holocaust denial and antisemitism are on the rise, Dayan said.
The names in the book are sourced from Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, which the institution has been collecting since 1954. (Courtesy of Yad Vashem)
In addition to the permanent installations at Auschwitz and Yad Vashem, there are plans for a third version of the book to be created as a traveling exhibition.
“Our mission will be much more challenging, but also much more important and vital,” Dayan said of the coming era when no survivors remain. “We have to find innovative ways to reflect on and educate about what happened. I believe that you cannot remain indifferent to such a huge display when you see it.”
Dayan said he first experienced the power of the installation when he traveled to Auschwitz to see its initial version and found the names of his father’s uncles who were murdered in Poland.
New Yorker Bronia Brandman, a child survivor of Auschwitz originally from Jaworzno, Poland, was similarly moved when she embarked on a “roots trip” with her grandson Sruli Klaristenfeld in April 2017. Brandman’s large immediate and extended families were almost entirely wiped out by the Nazis.
Klaristenfeld navigated through the massive Book of Names at Auschwitz-Birkenau and found the names of his grandmother’s parents and other relatives. “It was a physical and permanent manifestation of their memory,” Klaristenfeld said.
Brandman said the impact of the monumental installation cannot be underestimated.
“People are indifferent. Many have no concept of the Holocaust ever happening and how it could be that 6 million innocent people were murdered in cold blood, including 1.5 million children,” she said. “The importance of the Book of Names is that the victims are immortalized for the future, and the past is never forgotten.”
Dayan said he looks forward to the Book of Names’ arrival at Yad Vashem after its display at the United Nations.
“Yad Vashem is the natural permanent home for the Book of Names,” Dayan said. “The public will be able to come and browse and find relatives, people with the same name as theirs or from the same locations as their families — or even to just pay respect to the victims.”
Avram said he expects the pages of the new book to be as worn from touch by visitors seeking the names of their family members as are the pages of the Book of Names exhibited at Auschwitz.
“Many families need a tangible, tactile way to reunite with the memory of the victims,” he said. “It’s the closest we can get to providing a gravestone.”
Meanwhile, the work of recovering the unknown victims’ names will continue apace, as it has for the last seven decades.
“It’s a debt we have toward the victims,” Dayan said. “We cannot let them be consigned to the lost pages of history. That is our promise to them — and to future generations.”
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It’s time for the pro-Palestinian movement to make a radical change
Over the past two years, activists across the world ramped up calls for divestment from Israel. On university campuses and at meetings of pension boards, the same call has become increasingly prominent: pull money away from anything tied to Israel.
But now that a fragile ceasefire may be taking hold, I want to offer a simple, slightly provocative suggestion: If you care about Palestinian lives, don’t just divest from Israel. Invest in Gaza.
And I mean that quite literally.
According to a joint damage and needs assessment conducted by the United Nations, World Bank and European Union a few months ago, about $53.2 billion will be required over the next decade to help Gaza recover from the destruction wrought by the war. (Some sources cite an updated figure of more than $80 billion.) Of this, at least $30 billion is to repair physical infrastructure — homes, water systems, roads and more. Another $19 billion is needed to address the collapse of Gaza’s economy and public services: shuttered businesses, lost wages, halted schooling, broken clinics.
But even before anything is rebuilt comes the problem of the debris. According to that same assessment, somewhere between 41 and 47 million tons of rubble now litter Gaza — maybe more. Not a single new road can be laid, or foundation poured, until that is cleared. That work alone could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take months of careful, often dangerous work.
And if Gaza is to be more than a symbol of tragedy — if it is to become a place where young people can live, work, and build a future — it will need productive investment. Physical infrastructure alone won’t deliver prosperity. The creation of markets and sustained economic growth requires investment in businesses, job creation, job training and entrepreneurship. That, too, must be part of the agenda.
Which means it’s time for the pro-Palestinian activists who have protested in cities and on college campuses all over the world since October, 2023, to change their tune. If you were marching for a ceasefire in Gaza; if you were pushing institutions to divest from Israeli-linked firms; if you’ve held a sign that says “Free Palestine” — it’s time to reconsider your tactics.
Imagine if even a fraction of the energy spent on divestment campaigns was channeled into reconstruction and development funds. Universities could create fellowships, specifically for Gaza residents, to give them the training necessary to bring their territory into a better future. Student groups could partner with international NGOs to fund the development and continued operations of schools or clinics. Municipalities that have severed ties with Israeli investments could reinvest that capital in Gaza’s public health or housing.
It’s easy to say, “We won’t fund oppression.” It’s harder — and far more meaningful — to say, “We will fund rebuilding.”
That pledge is desperately needed. There are encouraging headlines about funding for Gaza, but, as of yet, little cold, hard cash.
In theory, international donors will step in. The United States-backed “20-point plan” includes reconstruction of Gaza as a pillar, but does not attach a promise of concrete funding. The U.N. recently confirmed that multiple countries, including the U.S., have shown “willingness” to help fund the monumental effort, but offered no specifics. The Gulf states and other regional actors have expressed interest in supporting postwar rebuilding, but have not yet made any clear commitments. An exception is the European Union, which has pledged €1.6 billion to support Gaza’s reconstruction. That’s a very generous amount — but a tiny fraction of what’s required.
The political will may exist in principle. But in practice, many of these promises remain vague, contingent or politically fragile. And they come at a moment when investment in global foreign aid is trending in the opposite direction. President Donald Trump’s administration has shuttered USAID offices; bilateral development budgets are shrinking; and public tolerance — especially in Western democracies — for large-scale foreign aid packages is wearing thin.
Relying solely on states and slow-moving aid agencies isn’t going to be enough. Not at the scale or pace that’s necessary. Gaza’s future won’t just depend on donor generosity — it will require new sources of capital and creative partnerships that can go beyond patching the ruins and instead build a foundation for long-term prosperity.
Of course, there are legitimate concerns, including the unsettled future of Gaza’s governance, the potential for further conflict with Israel down the road, the risk of Hamas interference, and the specter of corruption. But those are not reasons to do nothing. They’re reasons to build mechanisms for transparency and oversight.
If activists demand accountability from Gaza’s reconstruction, while proactively investing in it, they’ll be making a future for the strip not just possible, but better.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth: While divestment campaigns are great at signaling values, they rarely create concrete results that bring positive change to the lives of everyday Palestinians. They have yet to rebuild a single school. They don’t help provide health care.
Gaza needs more than slogans. It needs billions of dollars. Now.
So, to those in the pro-Palestinian movement: you’ve spent months organizing, marching and lobbying. You’ve asked the world to listen. Now’s your chance to lead. If you truly believe in justice for Palestinians, this is the time to show it. Put your money where your mouth is. Don’t divest from Israel. Invest in Gaza.
The post It’s time for the pro-Palestinian movement to make a radical change appeared first on The Forward.
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NY State Young Republicans chapter disbanded amid racist, antisemitic chat scandal
(JTA) — New York’s state Young Republicans organization has been disbanded in the wake of leaked group chats in which officials joked about gas chambers, praised Adolf Hitler and used racist, antisemitic and homophobic slurs.
“The Young Republicans was already grossly mismanaged, and vile language of the sort made in the group chat has no place in our party or its subsidiary organizations,” New York GOP chair Ed Cox said in a statement, adding that he sent formal notice of the shutdown to the National Federation of Young Republicans.
Earlier this week, the Kansas Young Republicans club was also dissolved. The moves are meant to allow for a fresh start for the Republican Party’s youth wing in those states following a Politico exposé that published thousands of messages involving participants in multiple states.
Of them, several participants had ties to New York Republican politics. Since the reporting, some involved lost jobs or had political opportunities withdrawn.
The scandal has also fueled partisan squabbling. Amid the fallout, the Republican Jewish Coalition posted on X in response to Sen. Chuck Schumer’s criticism of GOP “silence,” writing: “We strongly condemn the comments and those involved should step aside. See how easy that is?”
The post then turned into a political attack: “Your turn @SenSchumer: condemn Jay Jones, Zohran Mamdani, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and more, in your deranged, radicalized party. You won’t. Enjoy the political wilderness in the meantime!”
Republican leaders have largely denounced the messages with House Speaker Mike Johnson saying the party “roundly condemn[s]” them. Vice President J.D. Vance, however, downplayed the uproar, saying “kids do stupid things” and calling the jokes “very offensive” but not worthy of life-ruining consequences.
The people involved are largely in their 20s, and the Young Republicans aim to engage conservatives between 18 and 40.
The post NY State Young Republicans chapter disbanded amid racist, antisemitic chat scandal appeared first on The Forward.
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Palestinian man who allegedly participated in Oct. 7 attack on Israel arrested in Louisiana
(JTA) — A Palestinian man in Louisiana was arrested Thursday after federal prosecutors accused him of participating in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, 33, a Palestinian resident of Lafayette, Louisiana, is accused of being an operative for the National Resistance Brigades, a Gaza-based paramilitary group that took part in the Oct. 7 attacks.
“After hiding out in the United States, this monster has been found and charged with participating in the atrocities of October 7 — the single deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.
The government’s case against Al-Muhtadi appears to represent the first arrest on U.S. soil of anyone alleged to have participated in the deadly 2023 attack, in which 1,200 people in Israel, most civilians, were killed and 251 people were taken hostage.
On that day, after Al-Muhtadi learned of the attacks, he allegedly “armed himself, recruited additional marauders, and then entered Israel,” according to a statement by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg.
According to transcripts of cell phone calls Al-Muhtadi allegedly made that morning, he told another man to “get ready” and that “the borders are open,” and later requested a “full magazine.”
Al-Muhtadi’s phone also used a cell tower located near Kibbutz Kfar Aza in Israel, where at least 62 residents were killed and 19 were taken hostage during the attacks, according to court documents.
He entered the United States on Sept. 12, 2024, after allegedly providing false information on his U.S. visa application to immigration authorities, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
A criminal complaint against Al-Muhtadi was filed on Oct. 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, on the eve of the second anniversary of the attack. He was charged with providing, attempting to provide or conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization as well as visa fraud, according to the criminal complaint.
The arrest comes as the U.S. government seeks legal redress against those who perpetrated the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which included U.S. citizens among the victims. In September 2024, the Justice Department also filed charges against six Hamas officials, including Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar shortly before he was killed in Gaza by the Israeli military.
Bondi established the Joint Task Force October 7, which the Justice Department is calling JTF 10-7, in February 2025 to investigate the attacks. The task force discovered Al-Muhtadi’s presence in the United States, according to the Justice Department’s press release, and JTF 10-7 and the FBI New Orleans Field Office are now investigating the case along with Israeli authorities.
The post Palestinian man who allegedly participated in Oct. 7 attack on Israel arrested in Louisiana appeared first on The Forward.