May 4, 2016

WeWork Israel is hosting the commemorative initiative, Memories in the Living Room (Zikaron BaSalon), which connects younger generations with the Holocaust.

WeWork’s offices in Herzliya, Tel Aviv and Beersheva will host Holocaust survivors in an open-invitation event that calls on everyone – but especially young people – to come and hear real life stories from the last living Jews to have personally experienced the Holocaust.

While numerous public ceremonies will take place in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins this evening, more and more people are choosing to remember the Holocaust in a more intimate setting via the Memories in the Living Room project.

A group of Israeli friends kick-started the alternative memorial idea in 2010 by inviting a Holocaust survivor to one of their homes to come tell their story. This year, over 150,000 hosts and participants worldwide will take part in the commemorative project.

Memories in the Living Room project mostly take place around Holocaust Remembrance Day but organizers encourage the events to take place year round as well. The project was launched to keep alive the public’s “connection to Holocaust Memorial Day and the memory of the Holocaust.”

“A few years ago, when the Holocaust Memorial Day arrived, it felt so far away– that it doesn’t fulfill the potential of what I can take out of this. I felt that in order to connect, I need to be engaged. Maybe we should make it a day we can connect to universal and Jewish values, to connect this lesson to being better people,” said Adi Altschuler, one of the initiators.

“The traditional way of commemorating by either going to an official ceremony or watching one on TV is too passive. People are looking for a way to commemorate in a more active way,” host Sasha Leshem told Times of Israel. “It’s something more special, it’s more varied. And with the different generations present, it’s more family-like in atmosphere.”

WeWork Herzliya, WeWork Dubnov and WeWork Beersheva will host the Memories in the Living Room project this evening at 6 p.m. All events are open to the public. For more information, click here.

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