Tonight begins Yom ha-Zikaron, Israel’s Remembrance Day, in honour of the soldiers and underground fighters who have died helping to create and defend the State of Israel. But ask Zvi Kan-Tor, a retired Israeli general, and he’ll tell you it’s time his country broadened their remembrance to include the 1.5 million Jewish Allied soldiers who fought in the Second World War.
Kan-Tor has spent decades trying to fix this problem by creating a museum dedicated to that group of Diaspora fighters, which included 17,000 Canadians, as well as 35,000 soldiers from British Palestine that joined the British army. Now, after 20 years of political squabbles and funding issues, the Chaim Herzog Museum of the Jewish Soldier in World War II will finally open its doors to the public in Latrun, a hilltop battleground during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence that sits between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Kan-Tor hopes tourists and locals will stop by his museum after visiting Yad Vashem, so they can gain a fuller picture of what Jews accomplished during that terrible time. He’ll also discuss what earned the British, Soviet, American and South African Jewish military forces major exhibitions and their own separate wings—while the Canadian contribution got capped at a handful of noteworthy men.
What we talked about:
- See the museum’s website
- Watch the trailer for the The Museum of the Jewish Soldier in World War II
- Watch the Yom ha-Zikaron ceremony in Toronto
Credits
The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.
