Israeli President Isaac Herzog will head to Ukraine next week for the first state visit of his presidency, according to an official statement.
During his visit, which will take place between Oct. 5 and Oct. 7, Herzog is scheduled to meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, deliver an address before the Ukrainian Parliament and meet representatives of the Ukrainian Jewish community.
The president will also take part in an official international ceremony marking 80 years since the Babi Yar massacre and inaugurating Kyiv’s Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, alongside Zelensky and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, according to the statement. Accompanying Herzog on his trip will be Knesset member Ze’ev Elkin (New Hope), Israel’s government liaison to Ukraine, and other MKs.
“It is imperative to keep speaking about this horrific event and learn its lessons,” said Herzog.
“The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center is an important site for the commemoration of this painful memory and for the declaration that we must continue making together: never again,” he said.
“The only way to build a present and future in which atrocities and crimes against humanity can find no foothold is to study the past, including the Holocaust and persecution of the Jewish people, in the spirit of the commandment ‘and you shall tell your son and daughter.’ I welcome President Zelensky’s invitation and his commitment to the war against anti-Semitism,” he added.
