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The Garden of the Righteous of Yad Vashem

in Jerusalem first garden to remember the Righteous in the Holocaust

The Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem was set up in 1962 at the Yad Vashem Mausoleum, the most important place dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, in compliance with point 9 of the law that established this institution, which was approved by the Israeli Parliament in 1953, that states:
"Hereby the law establishes the Yad Vashem Foundation in Jerusalem, in order to commemorate (…) the Righteous among the nations, who have risked their lives to help the Jews."

To commemorate the Righteous among the nations they choose to plant carob trees. Hence the creation of the Avenue of the Righteous, that would later become a garden with the same name.
In 1963 the Israeli authorities set up the Righteous Commission to choose the people to bestow the honours on and dedicate the trees to. In its activities the Commission honoured nearly 20,000 Righteous.
The first President of the Commission has been Moshe Landau, the famous justice who sentenced Adolf Eichmann to death in  1961. In 1970 he was succeeded by Moshe Bejski, who held the Presidency until 1995, conditioning the commission's work with an open-minded and articulated interpretation of the law of 1953.Currently, due to a lack of space, the trees have been replaced with inscriptions into walls that have been erected especially for this purpose in the garden.

 

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Articles:

Women of Valor

Righteous women throughout the nations


Inconsistent criteria for "righteousness"

Who is righteous enough for Yad Vashem?


The Maternes honoured as Righteous

they sheltered the son of an unknown Jewish woman


Farewell to Moshe Landau

the founder of the Righteous Department