Today is Erev Yom Ha'Shoah (Eve of Holocaust Memorial Day) in Israel. It will be observed by Jews outside of Israel, too.

The Hebrew date was chosen to honor the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It's also a week before Erev Yom Ha'Zikaron Le'Chalalei Ma'archot Yisrael (Eve of Israel's Memorial Day for its Fallen Soldiers and Terror Victims), which is itself observed a day before Yom Ha'Atzmaut Le'Yisrael (Israel's Independence Day). A lot of people have remarked on the connection between the three dates. On Yom Ha'Atzmaut, we celebrate our independence, which allows us to determine our own fate, and defend ourselves without being dependent on anyone else, right after we remember the price in human life that we have paid and continue to pay for this independence, and a week before we mourn the price we've had to pay for not getting to have self defence during the Holocaust. NEVER FORGET that in one Nazi shooting pit alone (out of almost two thousand) during just 2 days (Erev Yom Kippur and Yom Kippur 1941), more Jewish men, women and kids were slaughtered than in the 77 years since Israel's Independence War was started by the Arabs. This unbreakable connection between the living and the dead, between our joy and our grief, is often addressed with the Hebrew phrase, במותם ציוו לנו את החיים, "With their death, they ordered us to live."

On this Erev Yom Ha'Shoah, I'd like to share with you some data, published on Thursday by Israel's Central Bureau for Statistics (source in Hebrew).

The number of Jews worldwide is 15.7 million, still lower than it was in 1939, before the Holocaust, 85 years ago (that is what a genocide looks like demographically).

7.1 million Jews live in Israel (45% of world Jewry) 6.3 million Jews live in the US (40% of world Jewry)

Here's the data for the top 9 Jewish communities in the world:

There are about 133,000 Holocaust survivors currently living in Israel. Most (80%) live in big cities in central Israel. Around 1,500 are still evacuated from their homes in northern and southern Israel due to the war (back in January, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, there was a report about 1,894 survivors who also became internal refugees due to the war. Source in Hebrew). One Holocaust survivor, 86 years old Shlomo Mansour, is still held hostage in Gaza. He survived the Farhud in Iraq.

I haven't seen any official number for how many survivors had been slaughtered as a part of Hamas' massacre, despite everyone here being aware that Holocaust survivors had been murdered on Oct 7, such as 91 years old Moshe Ridler. Maybe, as we're still discovering that some people thought to have been kidnapped during the massacre, were actually killed on that day, no one wants to give a "final" number while Shlomo has not yet been returned alive.

Out of all Israeli Holocaust survivors, 61.1% were born in Europe (35.8% in the countries of the former Soviet Union, 10.8% in Romania, 4.9% in Poland, 2.9% in Bulgaria, 1.5% in Germany and Austria, 1.3% in Hungary, 4.2% in the rest of Europe), 36.6% were born in Asia or Africa (16.5% in Morocco, 10.9% in Iraq, 4% in Tunisia, 2.6% in Libya, 2.1% in Algeria, 0.5% in other Asian and African countries) and 2.3% were born elsewhere.

Out of all Holocaust survivors in Israel, 6.2% managed to make it here before the establishment of the state, despite the British Mandate's immigration policy against it (up until May 13, 1948). 30.5% made it to Israel during its very first years (May 14, 1948 until 1951), another 29.8% arrived in the following decades (1952-1989), and 33.5% made Aliyah once the Soviet Union collapsed, and Jewish immigration to the west (which included Israel) was no longer prohibited by the Soviet regimes (1990 on).

The second biggest community of survivors in the world is in the US, the third biggest (but second biggest relative to the size of the population) is in Australia. I heard from many Holocaust survivors who chose to immigrate there that they wanted to get "as physically far away from Europe as possible."

For a few years now, there's been this project in Israel, called Maalim Zikaron, מעלים זיכרון (uploading memory. Here's the project's site in Hebrew. In English it's called Sharing Memories, and here's the English version of the site) where Israeli celebs are asked to meet up with a Holocaust survivor (it's done in Hebrew), and share the survivor's story and the meeting on their social media on Erev Yom Ha'Shoah (which is today). Each year, there's also one non-Israeli Jewish celeb asked to participate (in English. This time around it's Michael Rapaport, he's meeting Aliza, an 81 years old survivor from the Netherlands, who was hidden along with 9 other Jewish babies for two years. He uploaded a preview of his meeting with her here, where he asked her what it means to her to be a Jew, and from what I understand, he will upload more today to the same IG account). This year, there will be an emphasis on Holocaust survivors who also survived Oct 7 (with 6 of the 20 participating survivors having survived Hamas as well). Here's a small bit from an interview with one such survivor, 90 years old Daniel Luz from kibbutz Be'eri:

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

Inspired by @spacefroggity post here

im sorry but this is so precious i am sobbing rn

mr spock in the middle sighing at kirk’s illogical request is perfect lol

AAAAA

me with the t’spirk ‘verse

Brain: For the first time in months, I’ve decided to grant you a rare moment of motivation and energy AFTER work. You will now divert all attention to your original comic for 5 hours straight. You will have so many ideas and will feel no mental fatigue. You will feel inspired and enjoy this time spent writing and drawing. You will not feel the need to pause except to fulfill natural bodily functions. This is everything you’ve ever wanted.

Hands and wrists: PAIN PAIN BITING GNAWING NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE PAIN PAIN GRRR AHHHHH fuck you <3

I had a powerful urge come upon me and I was helpless against it.

Me everyday, trying to focus on work/school:

Everyone on my dash all day.

Me 24/7

what if ds9 had tumble

capsisko

the wormhole :) 

i-identify-starships-in-posts follow

klingon bird of prey, cloaked.

capsisko

?

(2373 notes)

skrainfanboy5997notdukat follow

Gul Dukat did nothing wrong.

wormzallday

f

juuuuulian

u

(9208 notes)

miles-edward-obrien

I thought I had work today, but no, the time loop.

(0 notes)

ziyart 

STATUS UPDATE, I WON THE ART COMPETITION! 

#THERE WAS NO ONE ELSE IN THE COMPETITION!

(9 notes)

kiranerys

If another thing breaks on this station i swear to the prophets

kiranerys 

the replicator just sent someone to the infirmary. our doctor is running on negative 60 hours of sleep at least

kiranerys

i just want a raktajino

kiranerys

@miles-edward-obrien get your ass in here

(23 notes)

sponsored 

come to quarks, quarks is fun, come right now, don’t walk, run!

miles-edward-obrien

I thought I had work today, but no, the time loop.

(0 notes)

juuuuulian

no sleep for 55 hours and counting!

juuuuulian

56 hours and counting!

juuuuulian

57 hours!

juuuuulian

where is miles

wormzallday

julian please

(7 notes)

n0gg

ah yes. me. my bestie. and his 50k word fanfic draft.

jakeosaurus

YOU asked ME if you could beta

n0gg

its funnier if i blame you

#lol

(93 notes)

juuuuulian

no sleep for 55 hours and counting!

juuuuulian

56 hours and counting!

juuuuulian

57 hours!

juuuuulian

where is miles

(7 notes)

ziyart

MY FRIENDS TOLD ME I CAN TYPE IN ALL CAPS!

# IM NEVER GOING TO TALK IN LOWERCASE EVER AGAIN!

(3 notes)

miles-edward-obrien

I thought I had work today, but no, the time loop.

(0 notes)

garaksclothiers

So many accusations in my inbox! You people certainly are creative.

odododo

I know you’ve killed before. You’ve barely tried to hide it

garaksclothiers

Oh? You hate me and my whimsy?

odododo 

I’m going to make a callout document on you.

(12 notes)

jakeosaurus

if the voles had subspace i think it would look like this

skittering-002

i love being in conduits undisturbed

pittering-pattering follow

I CAST PLASMA BEAM 10000 DEATHS

skittering-002

AHHHHH

(201 tiny notes)

the-scuttler

scuttling

the scuttler

easy website

(10032 tiny notes)

n0gg

the station is under attack stop vole blogging

jakeosaurus

do you think skittering-002 and pittering-pattering were in love

(38 notes)

deepspacenineofficial

Apologies for the high pitched whining! Our shields are activated, we are currently under attack. There is also an ion storm passing through.

miles-edward-obrien

If I get stuck in a time vortex again I swear to god

miles-edward-obrien

FUCK

(203 notes)

deepspacenineofficial

Apologies for the high pitched whining! Our shields are activated, we are currently under attack. There is also an ion storm passing through.

miles-edward-obrien

If I get stuck in a time vortex again I swear to god

(203 notes)

jakeosaurus

if the voles had subspace i think it would look like this

skittering-002

i love being in conduits undisturbed

pittering-pattering follow

I CAST PLASMA BEAM 10000 DEATHS

skittering-002

AHHHHH

(201 tiny notes)

the-scuttler

scuttling

the scuttler

easy website

(10032 tiny notes)

(38 notes)

n0gg

wormzallday

i really wish women were real

(1348 notes)

kiranerys

guldukat follow

#YES

(1024766 notes)

just the 3 of us

people I thought were my friends stop being antisemitic challenge

the second the 7/10 became prominent online, my weird online friend (who wasn't a fan of Israel, but weirdly said a lot of anti Palestinian remarks in the past, which I got mad at him for) decided to send me about 30 anti-israel tiktoks about the war, most of them were just teenagers in front of a camera reciting stuff they heard from other tiktoks, and it was like, completely unprompted???

I told him multiple times I'm pro peace, he knows I'm an Israeli leftist and had been advocating for peace for years, he knows I'm aware of the problems of our government (which you'd be blind to be unaware of), and he knows I'm in general not really a fan of living there, yet he still felt the need to send these videos as a kind of a "gotcha!" moment.

I had to sit there for like 3 hours to reply to every single one of these tiktoks and then explain to him what Zionism means for the 5th time, he still sends me posts like this 3 months later.

and then he has the guts to call me antisemetic for telling him to remove his ironic "FREE ISRAEL" nickname from a server I'm moderating, when he's a mod there two and knows politics aren't even allowed.

Sounds about right, yeah :/