Sheran Yeini and Eran Zahavi have been photographed with their hands painted yellow as part of the campaign to highlight the Holocaust Memorial Day "March of the Living"
This morning (Wednesday) Maccabi Tel Aviv team captain Sheran Yeini and star midfielder Eran Zahavi participated in a photo shoot for the campaign to highlight the Holocaust Memorial Day "March of the Living". The "March of the Living" is an annual educational programme which brings students from all over the world to Poland in order to study the history of the Holocaust and to examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hate. Since the first "March of the Living" was held in 1988, over 150,000 young people from around the world have marched down the same path leading from Auschwitz to Birkenau on Holocaust Memorial Day.
Here in Israel, the March is also designed to highlight the fact that of the some 180,000 Holocaust survivors who live in the country, more than half fail to take advantage of the benefits due to them under Israeli law. The campaign the two Maccabi players have joined has a dual purpose. One purpose is to raise awareness among Holocaust survivors of the opportunity to turn to the country's social services in order to exercise their full rights to government assistance under the law, assistance that in many cases can mean the difference between a life of dignity and one of poverty. The second purpose is to send a clear message to the decision makers in Jerusalem that Holocaust survivors are entitled to live what remains of their lives in dignity and that the bureaucracy and foot-dragging surrounding the awarding of their benefits must come to an end.
This year's "March of the Living" will be held in Tel Aviv on April 27th at 5pm, on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day. More information about the march is available at this link.
