14/04/2026
Holocaust Memorial Day Around the World
Even far from home, the memory feels closer than ever.
This week, at BINA centers around the world, communities came together - Israelis, locals, travelers, and residents - to pause, to remember, and to be together on Holocaust Memorial Day.
In Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, in a small group, a powerful moment unfolded. Claudio shared for the first time his family story, a story of escape, hiding, and human courage. Around him gathered a diverse group of people: Jews and non-Jews, Israelis and locals, and others who discovered their Jewish identity only later in life. Together, an intimate and meaningful conversation emerged about memory, identity, and what it means to tell this story here, far from home.
The moment a previously untold story is shared for the first time is a moment in which memory continues to live.
In Pokhara, Nepal, in a small living-room gathering that felt like home, the voice of Hadassah Hamburger, a survivor of Auschwitz, was heard through a recorded testimony. In the silence and attentive listening, larger questions arose: What do we take from this testimony into our lives today? How do we continue to choose life, resilience, and the responsibility to remember and to remind?
And in Hoi An, Vietnam, dozens of participants of all ages and backgrounds - recently discharged soldiers, families, and those who have chosen to build lives far from Israel - sat together for a “salon” of remembrance. The testimony of Sara Peri opened a deep conversation about the balance between memory and future, between pain and hope. The evening continued, as it sometimes does in moments of real connection, into the night with shared singing that held both sorrow and life.
In times when reality in Israel is complex and painful, these gatherings remind us that memory is not only a look backward, it is also a choice in the present.
A choice to be together.
A choice to listen.
