New York City honors Holocaust Center and survivors with a street naming

On Thursday (JAN 30) the City of New York honored Yad Vashem and the victims of the Holocaust with a street named after the world’s largest Holocaust remembrance center. The dedication of “Yad Vashem Way” came two days after International Holocaust Day, on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The unveiling of the street sign was attended by Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, and Rabbi Arthur Schneier, senior rabbi of the Park East Synagogue as well as community leaders, Holocaust survivors and political leaders. Congressman Jerry Nadler, Borough President Mark Levine, and Council Members Keith Powers and Julie Menin were in attendance.

Located on the corner of East 67th Street and 3rd Avenue – down the block form the Park East Synagogue.

Dayan, who served as Israel’s former Consul General in New York prior to assuming the chairmanship of Yad Vashem, said that he was moved by the city’s decision to honor Holocaust victims in Manhattan, especially next to the Park East Synagogue. Headed by Rabbi Schneier, himself a Holocaust survivor, the synagogue warmly welcomed the survivors who settled on the Upper East Side after the war, offering them a much-needed sense of belonging and community.

“It is very appropriate to have such a street in a city like New York, where the Park Street Synagogue is located, and which was a home to so many survivors trying to rebuild their lives after the Holocaust,” Dayan said. “Recognizing and remembering the victims of the Shoah is so important, especially these days, when antisemitism is rampant again all over the world, including in New York.”

Dayan, who flew directly to New York from the 80th anniversary ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau, believes the new street sign will prompt people who see it “to reflect on the importance of remembering events like the Shoah, and the imperative to fight antisemitism.”

Council member Keith Powers, who represents New York City’s District 4, covering Manhattan’s East Side and Midtown, called the street dedication to Yad Vashem and Holocaust survivors the right thing to do. “To me it’s a no-brainer. It’s a major opportunity to honor an important institution and to ensure that people never forget the Holocaust. It’s an opportunity to make a strong statement at a time when strong statements are needed.”

Naming a street after a worthy individual or institution is a way to uphold values, now and in the future, Powers said.

“Many of the people who walk down this block and see the sign will go and look up what the street name is about,” Powers said. “For a long time into the future, people will be educated about the history here. It’s a great gift to the city when New Yorkers can understand the importance” of the Holocaust and Yad Vashem.

For Rabbi Schneier, who has led the Park East Synagogue for more than half a century, New York City’s decision to name his synagogue’s street after Yad Vashem feels “very personal.”

“Auschwitz crematoria are the graveyards of my grandparents and family members. We honor the memory of 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children, with the renaming of this street to Yad Vashem Way,” Rabbi Schneier said.

“I am grateful to Mayor Eric Adams, Councilmember Keith Powers and the New York City Council for their commitment to preserving the history and lessons of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem Way shall serve as an eternal reminder of the sacred duty to Never Forget and the resilience of the Jewish People”

At a time when antisemitism and Holocaust denial are on the rise globally, and particularly after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, “the promotion of Holocaust awareness and education are important so that future generations will learn to bear witness and can ensure that the horrors of the past are never repeated. May we hear the cry of the oppressed, stand up for human rights, and fight for freedom,” the rabbi said.

He is hopeful that passersby and the many people who pass by the synagogue, as well as the countless dignitaries – who pass through the synagogue doors, “will take a moment to ponder the significance of Yad Vashem Way.”

Also this week, Yad Vashem inaugurated a week-long exhibition called Anguish of Liberation as Reflected in Art, a compilation of a dozen works of art created by Holocaust survivors soon after their liberation.Housed in New York City Hall, the exhibition was sponsored by the Mayor of New York City.

“One of the most important aspects of humanity is the ability to create, so creating art was an important process in a Holocaust survivors  rehabilitation and return to life,” said Simmy Allen, Yad Vashem’s international media spokesperson. “During the Holocaust they had no freedom of expression.”

Some of the artists documented their harrowing experiences while others drew on the fantasy world they imagined while in captivity in Nazi concentration camps or extermination camps.

While the survivors were grateful to finally be free, Allen said, they were grappling with existential questions: Where is home? What is a home?

Where do I go from here? “This was the anguish of liberation.”