Facebook (Meta) and the Israeli aid organization Latet, announced this week that they are teaming up with top Israeli social media influencers and content makers ahead of Israel’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day Thursday to launch this year’s “Sharing Memories” (Maalim Zikaron in Hebrew), a An initiative that connects young people to the testimonies of Holocaust survivors living in Israel today.
The holiday, known in Israel as Yom Hashoa, commemorates the six million Jews murdered during World War II. It starts on Wednesday evening and runs through Thursday evening.
As part of the project, prominent Israeli social media influencers will record one-on-one conversations with Holocaust survivors on their smartphones for the project. They will film survivors talking about their experiences during World War II and their lives in the present. The celebrities will then upload the interviews to their official Instagram accounts as part of the Instagram Stories feature, where the clips will remain for the full 24 hours. Instagram is owned by Meta (Facebook).
The interviews will run from Wednesday evening through Thursday evening, allowing millions of followers to watch them throughout the day.
The goal of the Sharing Memories project is to create a meaningful relationship between younger generations and survivors, raise awareness, and preserve the collective memory of the Holocaust through the sharing of testimonies through an accessible and globally used platform, according to a statement. More specifically, it aims to introduce young people, many of whom are active Instagram users, to the true stories of survivors.
The project also aims to reveal the current living conditions of many survivors in Israel, some of whom live below the poverty line. Israel currently has just under 166,000 Holocaust survivors, 50,000 of whom receive additional income from the state, according to data from the Holocaust Survivors’ Rights Commission.
The influencers participating in this year’s Sharing Memories project are: Kim Or Azulay (589K followers); Agam Bohbot (434 K); Rotem Cohen (285 thousand); Ronnie Dalome (162 thousand); Or Elkayam (56.8 K); froggy (247 K); Galgalatz (123 K); Corinne Gideon (293K); Ido Grinberg-Mismas (142 thousand); Omar Hazan (365 thousand); Hesenor (647 K); Liran Koehner (234 thousand); Ella Lee Lahav (189 thousand); Ori Laisrovich (111K); Segev Moshe (229 K); Moshe Peretz (530 thousand); Liraz Rousseau – constant (607 K); Yael Shelabia (1.4 million); Ibn Al-Tafouri (512 K); Noah Tishby (250 thousand); Anna Zak (1.4 million); and Cher Zwarts (51 thousand).
Several large Israeli Facebook communities have also joined the initiative, encouraging its members to donate to Latet to support the livelihoods of struggling Holocaust survivors.
This year’s project follows the success of its launch the previous year, which achieved 3.1 million viewers on social media and generated NIS 500,000 in donations in 24 hours for the Latet’s Aid of Life program that provides support to vulnerable survivors of poverty. Today 165,800 Holocaust survivors live in Israel, and about 50,000 of them receive additional income from the state, which means they are unable to provide for their basic needs on their own.
“Faced with the prospect of a generation on the verge of disappearance, the traditional approach to commemorating must reinvent itself, in order to bridge the generational gap and ensure that these immeasurably important stories continue to be heard for generations to come,” said Addie Soffer. Tenny, Country Manager at Meta in Israel. “Using the massive power of social media, the Sharing Memories Project provides a stage for these poignant stories and creates a true, unmediated relationship between Holocaust survivors, the most prominent content creators in Israel and the young people who follow them every day.”
“Sharing memories of the Holocaust, helping survivors in need, and building a relationship with young people are especially important goals during these years when the generation that lived during the Holocaust is fading away,” said Eran Weintraub, Executive Director of Latet. “Israeli society now has a narrow window of opportunity to do what is needed to create continuity of Holocaust memory among young people and mobilize them to work for those who still need help.”
