On September 11, a historic event took place in the Izyaslav region: in the forest towards the village of Bileve, a monument to the victims of the Holocaust was unveiled at the site of the execution of Jews during World War II. This is the second monument in the Izyaslav district, financed by the American Tsal Kaplun Foundation. Many guests gathered and attended the requiem rally. Representatives of the foundation, Joseph Menaker and Leonid Wein, flew in from the United States of America, were present, as were representatives of the authorities from Khmelnytskyi and Izyaslav, guests from Kyiv, the author of the monument, sculptor Hleb Panteleev, and Jewish communities. It is very important that a lot of young people gathered at the event. It is they who, after us, will become the bearers of the true memory of the horrors of the Holocaust.
There were many speeches – sincere and caring. Rabbi of the Khmelnytskyi Jewish religious community Yosef Teitelbaum, in the presence of a prayer group, read a memorial prayer and blew a horn, because the holiday of Rosh Hashanah was coming soon. The event that occurred in the Izyaslav Forest 78 years ago, when about a thousand Jews were executed without the slightest guilt, has not been forgotten.
God grant that everyone learns the lesson of the Holocaust. We, the employees of the Hesed Besht Children's Charity Foundation, are constantly working to preserve the historical memory and heritage of the Jewish people. For us, each such event is of archival importance, as it strengthens our faith that the Holocaust, this tragedy and madness of a universal scale, has no chance of repeating itself, that the world will not allow such tragedies - neither large nor small. We express our deep gratitude to the authorities of the Izyaslav region for organizing the rally, we know what great trouble this is. But our greatest gratitude is for the memory. The memory of the Holocaust is necessary so that our children never become victims, executioners, or indifferent observers.
