The Israeli government recently said it plans to honor for the first time non-Israeli Jews who have been killed in anti-Semitic attacks outside the country's borders.
The initiative was promoted by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, as it seeks to strengthen the relationship between Israel and the Jewish diaspora. The decision, based on a government resolution from May 2023, will allow these victims to be remembered in national commemorations, such as Memorial Day in Israel.
To this end, the ministry has set up a public committee tasked with evaluating proposals for including these victims in state memorials, including commemorative events and the possible construction of an official monument in the future. The working group is chaired by Yaakov Hagoel, president of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), and Avi Cohen Scali, director general of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, but also includes representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Security Council, the WZO, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and the Jewish Agency.
So far, at least 155 non-Israeli Jews have been identified as having been killed in anti-Semitic acts, nine of them since October 7, 2023, determined by certain criteria, such as that the victim must have been killed in a hostile act perpetrated by an organization or individual hostile to the Jewish people, and the incident must have been classified as anti-Semitic by the authorities of the country where it occurred.