I write to you with the recollection of the Israeli Online Plenary last week still vivid in my mind and heart. The enthusiastic feedback we have received so far from Plenary participants confirms the positive impressions of its organizers.
For me, this Plenary was a particularly memorable experience. Not only was it my first Plenary as the hosting IHRA Chair. Additionally, there were the adverse and disruptive circumstances forced upon us by hostilities then raging between Israel and Iran. These required me to decide rapidly, together with Secretary General Kuchler, whether and how to conduct the Plenary. Our decision to immediately pivot and "create" an Online Plenary was grounded in our trust in the ability of the Presidency and Permanent Office teams to execute the new concept and in our faith that the IHRA community would cooperate and support. How good it is to know, in retrospect, that our trust and faith were confirmed.
I ascribe the energy, professionalism and shared commitment that were expressed throughout the Plenary not only to teamwork and camaraderie. I am convinced that they also reflect our shared identification with the enduring foundational values upon which IHRA was established. This year we mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Stockholm Declaration. That document's core concerns remain as crucial as ever: What can we learn from the Holocaust, and how can its study help counter antisemitism and racism, and help prevent genocide? In short, what is the purpose of Holocaust remembrance?
Of course, Shoah remembrance did not commence in Stockholm or any other post-Holocaust venue. Rather, it is rooted in the words and aspirations of the victims themselves, even as the horrors were taking place. For instance, the diary of Abraham Lewin (1893 -1943), an educator and member of the clandestine Oneg Shabbat Archive in the Warsaw Ghetto, speaks directly to us. It documents his experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto, including a rare authentic chronicle of the Great Deportation of the summer of 1942, during which approximately 300,000 Jews were sent to their deaths in Treblinka and some 10,000 were murdered within the ghetto itself.
In an entry dated June 26, 1942, Lewin wrote:
“…Despite all the monstrous actions and our bitter disappointments, I still believe in humankind... If we can still hope and aspire for a brighter future, it is only if humanity will understand that age-old truth, natural and self-evident—that the supreme holiness on this earth is that of life.
This understanding must and will come. Then a new humanity will rise …”
Lewin and millions of others did not live to see the world even begin to reckon with the enormity of the Holocaust or with its myriad implications. But others, especially the survivors, pursued their vision over the past 80 years. Now, at the crossroads of generations, we in IHRA are both privileged and duty-bound to continue that pursuit.
Much of our just-concluded Plenary reflected our acceptance of that privilege and duty. The IHRA statement in support of Holocaust remembrance institutions, organizations, and practitioners; the implementation of the IHRA Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Persecution and Genocide of the Roma during the Nazi Era; the proposed initiatives for preparing the next generation of Holocaust researchers and for encouraging young "ambassadors" for Holocaust remembrance. These and many other resources, tools and outputs evidenced during the Plenary testify to IHRA's vitality and potential. Our ability to harness and transform that into focused action will be tested in the coming months, during the significant interval leading up to our next Plenary, which will take place in Jerusalem, in December 2025. Let's use that time wisely and effectively.
It is customary to conclude various Jewish holidays and gatherings with the exhortation, “Next Year in Jerusalem”, an age-old expression of hope and resilience. For IHRA in 2025, that aspiration requires slight modification: This Year in Jerusalem.
