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International Holocaust Remembrance Day was commemorated in Ankara on January 24, 2019. The day started with a morning prayer held in Ankara Synagogue with the attendance of Turkish Jewish community members, and ambassadors and foreign mission representatives based in Ankara. Ankara Synagogue opened its doors for the Sahrit (morning) prayer. Chief Rabbi of Turkey Isak Haleva, co-President of the Turkish Jewish Community Ishak Ibrahimzadeh and the President of Ankara Jewish Community Can Özgön made speeches expressing the importance of commemorating the Holocaust. After the prayer for the memory of the Holocaust victims, Anoten prayer was read for the sake of the state of Turkey. The group met for a family photo with the sign #WeRemember to support World Jewish Congress’ initiative. Following the ceremony in the Synagogue, the official ceremony was held in Ankara University where Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Faruk Kaymakçı, President of Ankara University Prof. Dr. Erkan Ibis, C...

Turkey marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day with a ceremony held in Ankara with the participation of Deputy Prime Minister Yıldırım Tugrul Turkes, Head of International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Turkey Committee Ambassador Aylin Tashan, and the president of the Turkish Jewish Community Ishak Ibrahimzadeh. Turkey marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 th  with a ceremony held in the capital, Ankara. Deputy Prime Minister Yıldırım Tugrul Turkes represented the government at the ceremony held at Ankara University with the attendance of Jewish community leader Ishak Ibrahimzadeh and prominent members of Turkish Jewish community and foreign diplomats including Israel’s Ambassador to Turkey Eitan Na’eh and United States Ambassador to Turkey John Bass. During the ceremony, chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Turkey Rav Mendy Chitrik and his son Chaim Chitrik performed Eli Ata and a Holocaust documentary was screened.

The Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Hungary organized a two-day event in Istanbul on Holocaust and Holocaust education. The event included semi-academic panel and musical performance by Hungarian artists including the well-known Budapest Klezmer Band. Hungary is the chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) this year. The Hungarian Consulate in Istanbul organized a two-day event on October 7-8 th  in Istanbul on Holocaust and Holocaust education. Chief Rabbi of the Turkish Community Isak Haleva, Ambassador of Hungary Gabor Kiss, Israeli Chargee d’Affaires Amira Oron, Consul General of Hungary Balazs Hendrich, Consul General of Israel Shai Cohen, Deputy Consul General Shira Ben Tzion and the President of the Turkish Jewish Community Ishak Ibrahimzadeh were among the guests of this event which took place at Kadir Has University, Cibali campus.

The victims of the Holocaust were officially going to be commemorated in Turkey – as they would be in many other countries. This was huge. And it would happen in Ankara, the heart of Turkey! We already had a Yom HaShoah, a Holocaust memorial day. The UN’s Holocaust International Remembrance Day was first commemorated in Turkey five years ago at Neve Shalom Synagogue. Last year, the commemoration was held for the first time outside Jewish institutions, at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. This year it would be held at Bilkent University in Ankara. This year was also important because the Speaker of Parliament, Cemil Çiçek, would be attending the ceremony. It would be the first time that such a high ranking official did so.

I was excited; this is the best word to describe my feelings that day. Every detail of the ceremony had been worked on for weeks. We were going to Ankara! And to commemorate the Holocaust nonetheless, this was huge! The victims of the Holocaust were officially going to be commemorated in my country, as it will be in many other countries. And in Ankara, at the heart of Turkey!

During his visit to Istanbul I had the chance to meet Mr. Mark Weitzman, the Director of Government Affairs of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and a member of the official US delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, IHRA. We discussed the recent Paris attacks, the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe and how to fight the hate in social media. The new year began with attacks to Charlie Hebdo and then to a kosher supermarket right before Shabbat. How do you explain these attacks? What are the motives behind them? It is clearly tied up with Islamist radicalism. A small number of people see answers only in violence and expect the rest of the world to give in to all demands immediately. That is the similarity between the two. The underline issue of anti-Semitism in the supermarket is one that I think a lot of people in the western world and other parts of the world are happy to be ignoring. That is why I was glad to see the secretary general of the United Nations issu...