Travel website ranks Yad Vashem among top museums

Yad Vashem was ranked fourth in the top 25 museums in the world by the travel website TripAdvisor.

Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial and museum, also was awarded the website’s 2013 Certificate of Excellence, given to sites that consistently receive outstanding traveler reviews.

TripAdvisor is a popular travel website driven by reviews and comments of tourists and travelers.

Another Holocaust-related memorial, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland, was ranked at #10. Number one was the State Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, followed by the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, Mexico, and then the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois.

To qualify for a Certificate of Excellence, tourist sites must maintain an overall rating of four or higher out of a possible five, as reviewed by travelers on TripAdvisor. Yad Vashem is currently listed as first among 146 recommended sites to visit in Jerusalem.

Visitors who commented on the site applauded the “moving and informative displays,” the “incredible use of architecture, audio visual, photos, and actual items to recreate a time in history that should never happen again.” They called it an “emotional, educational and inspiring experience” and an “unbelievably moving experience” that is a “must-see” for any traveler to Israel.

Some 1 million people visit Yad Vashem annually.