President Donald Trump has agreed to an expanded visit at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, where he will participate in a memorial ceremony on the second day of his two-day visit to Israel (Tuesday, May 23.)
Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev will accompany President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump while at Yad Vashem, according to a statement from the Holocaust center. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, as well as Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, will also join the President during his visit to Yad Vashem.
“While the President’s visit to Israel is brief, he has chosen to commemorate the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust by participating in a memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance,” the statement said.
During the ceremony, the President is slated to rekindle the eternal flame and lay a wreath on a stone slab under which ashes from extermination camps are buried. El Maleh Rachamim, a Jewish prayer for the souls of the martyrs’ of the Holocaust, will be sung by a cantor.
President Trump will be invited to sign the Yad Vashem guest book and Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev will present the President with a token of remembrance, an exact replica of the original Holocaust-era personal album that belonged to Ester Goldstein who was murdered during the Holocaust at the age of 16.
Ester’s sister Margot Herschenbaum, the sole survivor of her immediate family, will also attend the Presidential event at Yad Vashem. Ms. Colette Avital, Chairperson of the Center Organization of Holocaust Survivors in Israel will be present at the ceremony at Yad Vashem as well.
The personal album of Ester Goldstein is one of hundreds of thousands of personal items preserved for posterity in the Yad Vashem Archives.
The album is comprised of messages of hope and everlasting friendship inscribed by Ester’s family and friends. Some of the pages are embellished with optimistic and innocent illustrations, while others include photographs of those dearest to her.
The dedications in the album express familial devotion and steadfast connection to Judaism. The first entry is from 1937, when Ester was eleven years old, and the final one is dated September 16, 1942, about a month before Ester was deported to Riga (Latvia) and subsequently murdered.
This personal album is one of several included in an online exhibition available via Yad Vashem’s website in four languages: English, Hebrew, Spanish and German.
Approximately 1.5 million Jewish children were murdered in the Holocaust, most of them leaving behind almost no trace – a handful of photographs and some personal belongings. This precious album offers insight into the life of a young girl that was cut brutally short.