Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, visited Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, on Tuesday.
Zelenska visited the Book of Names installation and the Hall of Names, where she listened to an excerpt from the newly launched audio guide in Ukrainian.
The first lady also attended a memorial ceremony at the Hall of Remembrance and visited a tree planted in honor of Sukhenko Yakov, a Righteous Among the Nations (a non-Jew who risked his life to save Jews during the Holocaust) from Ukraine.
Towards the end of the visit, Zelenska met with a group of teachers from Ukraine participating in an educational seminar at Yad Vashem to learn best practices of how to teach about the Holocaust.
Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan accompanied her
throughout her visit.
Zelenska’s visit follows her breakfast with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his wife, Michal, in Tel Aviv on Monday.
Her tour comes against the backdrop of Israel’s supply of humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine suffering under the Russian invasion. Israel has also taken in refugees and provided medical treatment to the wounded.
Zelenska also toured Safra Children’s Hospital at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan on Monday. She held a professional discussion with the National Coalition for Trauma and NATAL—The Israel Trauma and Resiliency Center together with senior representatives from Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the European Union.
In May 2022, Zelenska initiated the creation of the National Program of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, to help Ukrainians overcome trauma caused by the war.
“Mrs. Zelensky’s visit is the result of a collaboration that took place over the past year to strengthen therapists in the field of mental health and trauma care in Ukraine, and as a result of the relationship formed between the wife of the country’s president, Michal Herzog, and the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, in these fields,” said the President’s Office.
