In honor of the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has ordered City Hall and other municipal buildings to be lit yellow in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“On this 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we stand at a profound moment in history, where remembrance is not just about the past, but about securing our future,” Adams said. “As mayor of the city that proudly houses the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, I am deeply moved by the resilience of our Jewish family while remaining ever mindful of the devastating void left by the Holocaust.”
According to a study from UJA-Federation of New York, nearly 1.4 million individuals in the Greater New York area identified as Jewish in 2023.
“In these challenging times, when antisemitism continues to surface in our society, New York City remains steadfast in our commitment to being not just a safe haven but a beacon of hope for the Jewish community,” Adams continued. “The yellow lights illuminating our city buildings tonight serve as both a memorial to the 6 million lives lost and a bright reminder of our unwavering solidarity.”
City Hall will also host a special exhibition in the building’s rotunda for the next week titled “The Anguish of Liberation as Reflected in Art,” featuring works from the Yad Vashem Art Collection.
“This exhibition compels us not only to reaffirm our shared responsibility and preserve these stories but to act, to remain vigilant against the erosion of basic human values as a result of the spread of contemporary antisemitism and hatred,” said Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
New York City faced a 137 percent increase in antisemitic incidents from June 2023 to June 2024. On Sunday, Israeli restaurant Miriam in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn was vandalized with antisemitic messages across its outer windows.
