Note Holocaust on 26 of Iyar

Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Vice President German Zacharyev says that world Jewry should make the 26th of Iyar on the Hebrew calendar an annual celebration of the liberation of European Jews by Soviet forces at the end of the Second World War.

In 1945, the 26th of Iyar fell on May 9, which was the day Nazi Germany surrendered to the Red Army.

Israel currently celebrates “Victory Day” on the secular date of May 9, in sync with the same holiday in the Russian Federation. In order to promote the observance of the holiday on the Hebrew date, Zacharyev plans to write the first of several Torah scrolls at a ceremony next week.

It is important to honor the “quarter million Jews who risked their lives during the war as part of Allied armies and partisan units,” Zacharyev said in a letter to supporters, the Jerusalem Post reported.