RUSSIA: Moscow holds Holocaust memorial service with prominent politicians and religious figures lighting candles at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre

Record ID: 859897

  • Title: RUSSIA: Moscow holds Holocaust memorial service with prominent politicians and religious figures lighting candles at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre
  • Date: 27th January 2013
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (JANUARY 27, 2013) (REUTERS) **CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY** EXTERIOR OF JEWISH MUSEUM AND TOLERANCE CENTRE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LIGHTING CANDLES IN REMEMBRANCE OF HOLOCAUST VICTIMS
  • Embargoed: 11th February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • City:
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: History,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2O7F4MQGDBO637HDIFZU02LSX
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  • Story Text: A Holocaust memorial service was held in Moscow at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre on Sunday (January 27), with prominent politicians and religious figures lighting candles and praying for victims.
    Russia's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, who took part in the ceremony lighting candles and praying for the victims of mass murder of Jews during the World War II, said that it was important to understand that sometimes simple and innocent things at first sight can lead to such big tragedies.

    "First of all we remember the tragedy and it's clear that the most important thing is to understand that sometimes even words that don't sound scary at all can cause such a horror," Rabbi Lazar said.

    "Today we remember the tragedy that happened not so long ago. It happened only 70 or even 60 years ago. But how come the whole world was watching it all and didn't not act, but stayed indifferent?" - he added.

    "Holocaust teaches us, unfortunately, that if it happened once, that can always repeat. And we can see it in the world, in various regions, there're still people not only feeling it, talking about it, but also acting it," Lazar said.
    January 27 has been marked as an International Holocaust Remembrance Day since 2005. The date is associated with the liberation of the Nazi camp in Auschwitz-Oswiecim in Poland by the Red Army.
    The memorial candle-lighting ceremony also served as an opening of the exposition titled "Victory has salty taste", dedicated to the victims of Holocaust. The exposition features various posters that display the ideology of Nazism and was organized in cooperation with the Moscow-based Israeli Cultural Centre and the Nativ organisation set up under the office of the Israeli prime-minister.
    Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center opened last year and was backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has taken pains to show support for Russia's Muslims and Jews.
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