About the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem
The Canadian Society for Yad Vashem, established in 1986, is dedicated to bringing Yad Vashem's world-leading knowledge and expertise to multi-cultural Canadian audiences and raising awareness of the Holocaust and its universal lessons thorough significant educational initiatives and the organization of high-profile commemorative events on the national, provincial and municipal levels.
The Society's vital educational initiatives include recruiting and sending dozens of Canadian educators annually to seminars at Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem; hosting alumni conferences which present new and innovative pedagogical practices and curriculum materials to graduate educators of the Educators' Seminar; and bringing the relevancy of the Shoah to the third and fourth generation of survivors through our Twinning Program, which pairs bar/bat mitzvah children with a child Holocaust victim.
The Society’s many commemorative activities include organizing Yom Hashoah events on the national, provincial and municipal levels. The Society leads the National Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa which is attended by Ambassadors from countries across the globe, Canada’s Cabinet Ministers, Party Leaders, Supreme Court Judges, Senators, and Members of Parliament; the Holocaust Survivors’ Queens Park Award Ceremony, in affiliation with the Premier of Ontario and the Ontario Legislature, which recognizes the outstanding achievements of Ontario’s Holocaust Survivors; and the Toronto Earl Bales Park Ceremony, co-produced with the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, which is attended on average by over 2000 people.
The Canadian Society of Yad Vashem's numerous educational and commemorative endeavours bring Yad Vashem’s world-leading knowledge and expertise to multi-cultural Canadian audiences. With global antisemitism, bigotry and intolerance on the rise, affecting Jews and the global community, the Society is dedicated to advancing and expanding its essential mission with more resolve than ever.
Only together, can we remember the past and shape a better future marked by greater tolerance, compassion and understanding for all humankind.