Forest of the Martyrs ( he, יער הקדושים) (Ya'ar HaKdoshim) is a
forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
on the outskirts of
West Jerusalem
West Jerusalem or Western Jerusalem (, ; , ) refers to the section of Jerusalem that was controlled by Israel at the end of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. As the city was divided by the Green Line (Israel's erstwhile border, established by t ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. It is on the western edge of the
Jerusalem Forest
The Jerusalem Forest is a municipal pine forest located in the Judean Mountains on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It is surrounded by the neighborhoods of Beit HaKerem, Yefe Nof, Ein Kerem, Har Nof and Givat Shaul, and a moshav, Beit Zeit. The ...
near
Beit Meir. It was planted as a memorial to those who died in the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
and contains six million trees, symbolizing the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
and their
collaborators in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
History
The first trees for the forest were planted in 1951.
The World
B'nai Brith
B'nai B'rith International (, from he, בְּנֵי בְּרִית, translit=b'né brit, lit=Children of the Covenant) is a Jewish service organization. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the security and continuity of the Jewish peop ...
Jewish service organization financed a significant portion of the planting of the trees by the
Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund ( he, קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael'', previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, and subseq ...
.
In addition to the trees planted in the forest to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, the forest contains several memorials:
* The
Scroll of Fire, a large bronze sculpture by
Nathan Rapoport
Nathan Rapoport (1911–1987) was a Warsaw-born Jewish sculptor and painter, later a resident of Israel and then the United States.
Biography
Natan Yaakov Rapoport was born in Warsaw, Poland. In 1936, he won a scholarship to study in France and ...
, shaped like a double
Torah scroll
A ( he, סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה; "Book of Torah"; plural: ) or Torah scroll is a handwritten copy of the Torah, meaning the five books of Moses (the first books of the Hebrew Bible). The Torah scroll is mainly used in the ritual of Tor ...
, one depicting scenes of destruction of the Jewish people in ancient and modern times, and the second depicting scenes of national rebirth.
* The Martyrs Cave, a natural cave that developed as a place of reflection and communion with the memory of Holocaust victims.
* The Anne Frank Memorial, a large cube depicting the annex in which the Frank family and others hid and a depiction of a chestnut
tree that could be seen from the annex.
See also
*
List of forests in Israel
The forests of contemporary Israel are mainly the result of a massive afforestation campaign by the Jewish National Fund (JNF). This article is a list of these forests.
In the 19th century and up to World War I, the Ottoman Empire cleared the l ...
References
External links
maps(annotated in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
)
Forest of the Martyrsin the Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art at the
Center for Jewish Art,
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
{{Coord, 31, 46, 50, N, 35, 03, 40, E, source:cswiki_region:IL_type:landmark, display=title
Monuments and memorials in Israel
Holocaust commemoration
Forests of Israel
Protected areas of Jerusalem District