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Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)


The national memorial day for the holocaust in Israel is known as Yom HaShoah and is held on the 27th of Nisan (April/May), unless the 27th would be adjacent to Shabbat, in which case the date is shifted by a day.

The memorial day was inaugurated in 1953, anchored by a law signed by the Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion and the President of Israel Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.

Most Jewish communities hold a solemn ceremony on this day, but there is no institutionalized ritual observed by all Jews. Lighting memorial candles and reciting the Kaddish—the prayer for the departed—are most common.

Earlier Event: April 21
Dyngus Day
Later Event: June 14
Flag Day