An exciting salute conference for Holocaust survivors was held today (Monday) at the Habima National Theater, on the occasion of Survivors' Day.
Foreign Minister Lapid greeted the audience with a videotaped greeting, and said: "No one here will be persecuted because he is a Jew."
Lapid for Holocaust survivors: "No one here will be persecuted because he is a Jew"
The conference was initiated by the Department of Israel and the Holocaust Memorial in the Histadrut, the Center for Holocaust Survivors' Organizations in Israel, and other organizations.
As mentioned, just before he took office as Prime Minister, Lapid greeted the conference attendees, and told the story of his father, the late Tommy Lapid, who survived the Holocaust.
Lapid told an exciting story to the survivors, saying that his father traveled to his hometown in Yugoslavia in the late 1970s with a group of journalists, showing them his hometown.
One of the old neighbors went out to them and asked if they were from Israel and if they knew a boy named Tommy Lempel.
"My father replied that he was no longer a child, but he was definitely Tommy Lempel. She went into her house, and came back with a large envelope and told him 'God bless you.'"
Lapid said that the envelope contained photos of his family who perished in the Holocaust, which he thought had disappeared forever.
These are the only pictures he has left of his relatives.
"The people who survived the Holocaust survived, but their lives were lost. The world in which they grew up, the world in which they were supposed to live, was destroyed within five years, not only their present was taken from them, but also the future. Each and every one of you lost an entire life. The schools he did not go to, the fathers who disappeared, and the houses he did not live in. Most of you had to start learning a language and culture again and build a life.
"The State of Israel is the miracle that happened to most Holocaust survivors, it is the home of the people whose home has disappeared, it is the family of the people whose family was displaced, the State of Israel today notes the fact that it does not forget you. The State of Israel is the place where each and every one of you knows a language. No one will be persecuted because he is a Jew. This is the rest, this is the estate. A warm and big hug also from the boy from Novi Sad who survived the Holocaust. "
Tova Dorfman, Deputy Chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Head of the Department of Israel and the Commemoration of the Holocaust in Israel and the Diaspora, congratulates: "I thank Foreign Minister Yair Lapid for his words of encouragement.
The Holocaust Remembrance Department is the home and address of Holocaust survivors throughout the year.
On this day we want to salute you and your work.
We are here for you. "
Colette Avital, chairman of the Center for Holocaust Survivors' Organizations in Israel: "We are really happy, we have opened the doors of Habima and masses of Holocaust survivors come here, we salute them, they deserve a day of rest at least once a year."
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