Jerusalem | September 29, 2026
Andre Gasiorowski, Chairman of Helping Hand Global Forum, participated in a commemorative ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem marking the 85th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre and honoring the memory of the Jewish communities of Ukraine destroyed during the Holocaust.
The memorial event brought together Israeli and Ukrainian representatives, Holocaust remembrance leaders, diplomats, and representatives of Jewish organizations and communities.
Among the participants were Dani Dayan, Chairman of Yad Vashem; Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center; Gennadiy Breskalenko, Deputy Head of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Israel; and Larisa Levkovsky, Acting Chairwoman of the Association of Immigrants from Ukraine in Israel.
Andre Gasiorowski attended the ceremony as an invited distinguished guest. Helping Hand Global Forum was included in the official wreath-laying list, and its memorial wreath was laid during the ceremony at Yad Vashem.
During the commemoration, Andre Gasiorowski laid a memorial wreath on behalf of Helping Hand Global Forum, paying tribute to the Jews murdered at Babi Yar and to all victims of the Holocaust.
Babi Yar – 85 Years of Memory
On September 29–30, 1941, Nazi German forces murdered 33,771 Jews from Kyiv at the Babi Yar ravine in the course of just two days.
The killings at Babi Yar continued throughout the German occupation. In total, approximately 100,000 people are estimated to have been murdered at the site, including Jews, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and other victims of Nazi persecution.
The massacre of September 29–30 remains one of the most notorious mass shootings of Jews during the Holocaust and one of the defining symbols of what later became known as the Holocaust by bullets.
Archival photographs associated with Babi Yar provide historical context to the massacre and the site where tens of thousands of Jews were murdered.
Remembrance in Jerusalem and Kyiv
The 85th anniversary was commemorated simultaneously in Ukraine.
At the Menorah Memorial at Babi Yar in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy placed a memorial lamp in honor of the victims. He was joined by Ukrainian officials, rabbis, representatives of Jewish communities, international organizations, and diplomats representing nearly 50 countries.
In Jerusalem, the Yad Vashem program also included a historical presentation devoted to the destruction of Kyiv’s Jewish community during the autumn of 1941.
A special memorial installation entitled “Traces of Absence” was presented to mark 85 years since the massacre.
The ceremony served not only as an act of remembrance, but also as a reminder of the responsibility to preserve historical truth and transmit the memory of the Holocaust to future generations.
Memory is not only about the past. It is a responsibility to the future — to remember the victims, to oppose antisemitism and hatred, and to ensure that the words “Never Again” remain a living commitment.
