Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Across the world, memorial events will be held commemorating the day, chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Over the weekend, the Claims Conference released the results of a new demographic study that found that fewer than 200,000 Holocaust survivors are still alive.

In New York, Holocaust survivor Sara Weinstein will address the U.N. General Assembly at 11 a.m. ET today in a special session. Later in the day, Weinstein will join three other survivors in ringing the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange.

Also in New York, Elisha Wiesel, chair of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, will speak this evening about antisemitism, anti-Zionism and Jewish safety at Columbia University’s Kraft Center.

In Washington, the Counter Extremism Project’s ARCHER at House 88 is putting on a concert at the Kennedy Center titled “Enduring Music: Compositions from the Holocaust,” which will feature performances of works that were written in the ghettos and concentration camps of World War II Europe.

Elsewhere in Washington, the Washington Wizards are celebrating Jewish Heritage Night during their game tonight against the Portland Trail Blazers, who feature Deni Avdija, the Israeli-born breakout NBA star. See story below.

In Jerusalem, the Diaspora Affairs Ministry’s second annual conference on antisemitism wraps up today.

The Jewish Federations of North America’s Ruby Lion of Judah Mission arrived in Israel last night and runs through Feb. 1. The group is focusing on issues related to women, children and families in Israel in the aftermath of more than two years of war.

A QUICK WORD WITH EJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS

Yellow ribbon pins were unclipped from lapels, dog tags were taken off necks, magnets were removed from cars and posters taken down from walls. After 843 days in captivity, the remains of Ran Gvili were returned to Israel for burial. Gvili, a police officer killed while defending a Gaza border kibbutz during the Oct. 7 terror attacks, was not only the last remaining hostage from the 2023 Hamas onslaught. His return also marks the first time that there have been no Israeli hostages in Gaza since 2014. 

For the past 843 days, the issue of the hostages — and the advocacy movement that launched to advance the cause — has dominated Jewish discourse not only in Israel but globally. Though the chapter officially came to a close yesterday, its influence on Jewish life will surely remain for years to come. Read more below about the Jewish world’s response to the recovery of Gvili’s body.

As seen with the campaign to free Soviet Jewry, in addition to its stated purpose, such movements and causes offer the entryways and platforms that create leaders. In Israel, Natan Sharansky — perhaps the best-known refusenik — became a member of Knesset and government minister before leading the Jewish Agency for Israel as its executive chair, and Yuli Edelstein, who was imprisoned by the Soviet Union for teaching Hebrew, also entered Israeli politics, serving as a Knesset member, minister and — until 2020 — as speaker of the Knesset. 

In his memoir, which was released today, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro details how his family’s involvement in the free Soviet Jewry movement paved the way for his entry into politics. “The story got coverage in local news, and I started traveling around the country to give speeches for different organizations about our advocacy. I got a feel for speaking in public and figured out pretty early on that I liked engaging with people,” Shapiro writes.

As has been discussed in these pages before, the campaign to secure the release of the hostages served as a catalyst for Israeli expats in the U.S. to get more deeply involved in their local Jewish communities as they organized rallies and lobbied local politicians. Even without the cause of the hostages, that connection is unlikely to disappear quickly.

Writing in 2004, marking 40 years since the start of the free Soviet Jewry movement, Yossi Klein Halevi noted that the campaign empowered American Jews, giving them a central role to play in a major global Jewish event. “American Jews came to see themselves as a major force for Jewish freedom and security, protecting endangered Jews through political means, just as Israel did through military means,” Halevi wrote. “In its struggle for the freedom of Soviet Jews, American Jewry liberated itself as well.”

And now we will see what the struggle for the freedom of the hostages will do.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Course Correction: In The Atlanta Journal Constitution, local Jewish leader Eliot M. Arnovitz and American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee CEO Ariel Zwang call for societal action to address contemporary antisemitism. “In the past, as societies became increasingly antisemitic, persecution pushed Jews into poverty and isolation. … This moment is different. Most Jews do not live amid state-sponsored antisemitism. The increased threat is instead at the grassroots, where the impact of rising antisemitism and growing anti-Israel sentiment often intertwine. The result is burgeoning needs that must be met to ensure Jewish well-being and safety and to stave off further threats to Jewish inclusion and advancement in our societies. … Above all, people of goodwill must listen as growing numbers of Jews express a lived experience of fear and ostracization. After all, antisemitism is not just the responsibility of Jewish communities. It is a barometer for the direction our societies are taking, and it is time we correct course.” [AJC]

National Service: In The Jerusalem Post, Eric Fingerhut, Cindy Greenberg and Adam Lehman — the heads of Jewish Federations of North America, Repair the World and Hillel International, respectively — see a more central role for Jewish service work in building American Jewish life. “Today, as we navigate a world shaped by rising antisemitism, polarization, and profound communal challenges, Jewish service is both an antidote to isolation and an opportunity to make a measurable difference for both the Jewish community and the broader world. Over the past several months, we have seen firsthand how service can be a transformative entry point into Jewish identity and community – especially when it’s integrated across the ecosystem of Jewish institutions. What if Jewish service becomes a core element of how Hillels, JCCs, Federations, synagogues, and camps engage their people and build Jewish life?” [JPost]

Ein Yeush Ba’Olam Klal: In Mosaic, Ruth R. Wisse draws deeply from Jewish history and thought to address what she frames as an “assault on Jewish moral self-confidence.” “We are not in a ghetto and let us never think or behave as though we were. The current ugly phase of anti-Jewish and anti-American politics will not last, but how long it lasts and how deep it penetrates does not depend on us alone. Living among the nations, we have inadvertently become the gauge of their political good and evil. The worst political factions organize against us, and the best align with our common values. I can think of no exception to this political rule of thumb, which makes ours a frighteningly inspiring responsibility. To keep being Jews in the world means to overcome our disappointment in the failings of our enemies, the cowardice of some of our friends, and the difficulties of resistance. We must overcome despair to mobilize, but to mobilize is the best way to overcome despair.” [Mosaic]

Get AI Involved: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Lisa Schohl shares advice for fundraisers and nonprofit leaders interested in using AI to tailor their donor communications for 2026. “Start by explaining your goals to the chatbot. For example, if you want to share four email updates throughout the year along with an aligned social media post for each, provide a bulleted summary of what each email should include. Then ask it to act like a communications manager and create a plan for that project, [communications specialist Shea] Wylen suggests. Even if you don’t want to use AI to write all of your content, you can ask for guidance on how to manage the work, including mapping a timeline for the steps involved. For example, it can help you set deadlines for when you need to have a draft email ready, build a test, send it to donors, and then post on social media. ‘It will give you a really nice outline, and then from there you can just start to plug that into a project-management system to help you keep on track,’ Wylen says.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]

The Forward examines “yizkor books” that were used to preserve the memories of shtetls whose residents were killed in the Holocaust…

Jewish groups are again speaking out after border control agents shot and killed Alex Pretti during a protest against anti-immigration raids in Minneapolis. The Anti-Defamation League also issued a statement last night calling for “immediate deescalation,” after remaining mum on the matter until now. Read more about mainstream Jewish organizations’ responses to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota here…

The Trump administration deported roughly a dozen Iranians to the Islamic Republic as part of a broader illegal immigration in the U.S.; the deportation flight was the first to Iran since protests erupted there last month…

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum warned against “making false equivalencies to [Anne Frank’s] experience for political purposes,” days after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz invoked the young author and Holocaust victim as he compared the ICE raids in his state to Nazi actions during World War II…

Several leading Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy groups are expressing concerns about the impact of the recent rise in antisemitic and Islamist messaging out of Saudi Arabia, as the Gulf kingdom’s rhetoric is increasingly raising questions about its standing as a reliable U.S. ally in the region, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports…

Deni Avdija, the 6-foot-8 small forward from Beit Zera, Israel, is returning tonight to the Washington Wizards’ Capital One Arena, where his NBA career began, no longer as a developing young player, but as one of the the league’s breakout sensations, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…

The Times of Israel interviews Israel’s Diaspora affairs minister, Amichai Chikli, about his office’s second conference on combating antisemitism, which again features far-right political figures and few Jewish leaders; Chikli acknowledged that his primary focus on left-wing and Islamist antisemitism and embrace of the far right has put him at odds with Diaspora Jewish communities, which have serious concerns about both groups… 

B’nai Brith Canada is demanding a royal commission of inquiry into the rise of antisemitism in the country and the immediate appointment of a new antisemitism envoy, after the previous one, Deborah Lyons, resigned three months ago…

Marc Benioff’s Salesforce was awarded a $5.6 billion contract from the U.S. military as part of a modernization and efficiency drive… 

The New York Times examines how the ongoing immigration raids in Minnesota are driving a wedge between Silicon Valley and the White House…

Kanye West, now known as Ye, took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal to apologize to the Jewish community for past antisemitic comments, days before the release of a new album; the rapper said he suffered a brain injury in a car accident 25 years ago that damaged his frontal lobe, resulting in his erratic behavior, including his praise for Adolf Hitler…

Shelley Holt, who with her husband, Allan Holt, the vice chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, was a major donor to the USHMM as well the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and a range of medical causes and institutions, died on Saturday at 72…

Calgary, Canada, philanthropist Al Osten died last week at 95…

Rabbi Martin Cohen, a longtime professor at Hebrew Union College and the rabbi laureate of New York City’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, died this week at 98…

The Wiener Holocaust Library in London recently received a donation of artwork and writing from Czech Jewish artist Peter Kien, who passed on the works before he was transported to Auschwitz, where he died in 1944; the trove of artwork had been confiscated by Czech officials in the 1970s and recently recovered by the daughter of a friend of Kien’s….

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, who gained international attention for his efforts to secure the release of his son, Sagui, who was taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, is joining the faculty of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he will teach classes on Jewish legacies in Europe and modern Israeli history.

Tel Aviv’s Azrieli towers are seen illuminated last night with with “#WeRemember” as part of an international Holocaust awareness campaign by the World Jewish Congress. Similar displays can be seen in Germany, the Czech Republic, Moldova, Greece, Belgium and Switzerland.

“In a world where Jews are once again being targeted simply for who they are, remembering the Holocaust has never been more urgent,” World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder said in a statement. “#WeRemember is a global declaration that hatred, lies, and indifference will never prevail. We owe that commitment to the six million, to the survivors, and to every Jewish community living with fear today.”