Victory in Europe Day (Israel)

On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender brought the European phase of World War II to a close.[1] German General Alfred Jodl had signed an instrument of unconditional surrender on May 7 in Reims, with the surrender taking effect on May 8.[2][3] A related ceremony took place in Berlin on May 9 in the presence of Soviet Red Army generals; the Soviet Union — and later Russia and other former Soviet states — observed Victory Day on May 9 rather than May 8.[4][3]

The war had barely touched Mandatory Palestine directly. The 1940 Italian bombing of Tel Aviv was one of the few direct strikes, and a graver danger had loomed when German forces under Erwin Rommel advanced through North Africa; their defeat at El Alamein in November 1942 ended the threat of a Nazi conquest of Palestine.[5] Yet residents of the Yishuv — the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine — were deeply enmeshed in the war as refugees from Europe, as relatives of Jews being systematically murdered across the continent, and as soldiers. Around 40,000 Jewish men and women from the Yishuv volunteered for service in the British forces, and approximately 800 of them died.[6] Enlistment was itself a subject of internal debate: the community was locked in serious conflict with the British government over the White Paper, which restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine and land purchases, even as David Ben-Gurion supported aiding the British war effort while continuing to oppose that policy.[6]

In the broader Jewish world, the scale of wartime service was immense. Yad Vashem figures cited in a 2017 report put the total at approximately 1.5 million Jews in Allied armies: around 500,000 in the Red Army, 550,000 in the United States Army, 100,000 in the Polish Army, and 30,000 in the British Army.[7] The same report estimated that about 200,000 Soviet Jewish soldiers died on the battlefield or in German captivity.[7] Other estimates differ: the World Jewish Congress reports that more than half a million Jews served in the Red Army and estimates that 120,000 were killed.[8] Around 250,000 Jews overall died as a result of fighting against the Axis powers.[4]

Germany's surrender was greeted with enormous relief worldwide, and the Jewish Yishuv in the Land of Israel marked the occasion with festivities even as urgent efforts to aid Holocaust survivors in Europe were still underway.[9] Archival material held by the National Library of Israel documents Jerusalem's Victory Day celebrations on May 9, including a "Victory Day Parade" and an address recorded under the title "Ben-Zvi Speaks on Victory Day."[9]

Philosopher and historian Samuel Hugo Bergmann left a personal record of the moment. On May 7, 1945, he heard that Germany had surrendered. That evening, at a gathering at Senator's home, attendees learned that surrender talks had concluded and that May 8 and 9 had been declared "Days of Peace." Bergmann later called them "Two days of peace celebrations." The same evening he went to Jerusalem's Zion Square, where he recorded seeing "only drunken soldiers."[5]

The Chief Rabbinate of the Land of Israel also responded formally, distributing a special thanksgiving blessing for the Allied victory in May 1945.[10] The blessing thanked God for the victory of Britain and its allies — including the United States and the Soviet Union — and referred explicitly to Jewish soldiers serving in their armies. It also recalled the murder of Jewish men, women, and children. The text was intended for one-time recitation in synagogues rather than as a permanent addition to the prayer service.[10] The surviving copy of this document was reportedly rediscovered when Prof. Asa Kasher noticed it offered at an online auction in October 2021; Rabbi Isaac Herzog had proposed the blessing, and his grandson later said Herzog wished to write something for Jewish soldiers who returned safely and helped secure the victory.[10]

Israel's observance of Victory Day on May 9 is a product of the mass immigration wave that began in the 1990s, when around one million immigrants from the former Soviet bloc arrived in Israel, among them Red Army veterans who brought the Soviet Victory Day tradition with them.[11][1] Western countries mark the Allied victory on May 8, while former Soviet states observe it on May 9; Israel's celebrations follow the latter date.[3]

The connection between public commemoration and this immigrant community runs deep. Cherishing Red Army veterans strengthened the bond between Israeli society and immigrants from the former Soviet Union, with veterans present either physically or in the memory of nearly every family from that background.[11] By the mid-2010s, hundreds of veterans held marches in major Israeli cities each May 9, and the Knesset marked the day with a special annual discussion attended by the president and prime minister, though at that point the commemoration had not yet gained broad public recognition.[12]

Two legislative milestones appear in reporting, although the available accounts do not fully explain their legal relationship.[13][14] In 2000, the Knesset passed the Status of World War II Veterans Law, which was reported to have set the date for Israel's V-E Day celebrations.[13] On July 26, 2017, the Knesset passed the Victory over Nazi Germany Day law — introduced by MK Oded Forer — formally designating May 9 as a state occasion and requiring schools, the IDF, and public institutions to mark the day.[15][14] The law designates May 9 as a state holiday, though it is not a day off from work.[14] Reporting from subsequent years noted that implementation of the law's educational requirements remained incomplete in practice.[15]

The centerpiece of Israel's official Victory Day observance is the state ceremony at Yad Vashem, held at the Monument to the Jewish Soldiers and Partisans who fought against Nazi Germany.[1] That monument, completed in 1985 and designed by Bernie Fink, is dedicated to the one-and-a-half million Jewish soldiers, ghetto fighters, partisans, and Allied fighters who fought against Nazi Germany.[16] It consists of six oblong, hexagonal granite blocks arranged in two groups of three; a Star of David formed between the blocks is bisected by a stainless-steel sword. The six blocks represent the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, the Star of David represents the Jewish people, and the sword represents the armed struggle against the Nazis — a combination the Jewish Virtual Library notes is usually associated with the IDF, deliberately connecting Jewish soldiers in the Allied forces with modern Israeli soldiers.[16] A ceremony is held at the monument every year on May 9.[16]

Beyond Yad Vashem, observances spread across the country. Typical events include a car rally from Metulla to Eilat, beginning at 4 a.m. and associated with the June 22, 1941 launch of Operation Barbarossa; a wreath-laying by the Jewish National Fund and Red Army veterans at Kibbutz Ma'ale HaHamisha, where a plaque honors the Red Army; a ceremony at the Victory Monument in Netanya; marches in Bat Yam and Ashdod; a veterans' march in Jerusalem; and a memorial service at the Western Wall Plaza for Jews who fought against the Nazis.[13][1] The Herzl Institute at the University of Haifa also notes an annual Mount Herzl memorial in Jerusalem for the approximately 800 people from the Yishuv who died in World War II, as well as a separate May memorial ceremony at the monument to members of transport company 462 who died while sailing toward Italy.[6]

A 2017 celebration captured the human scale of these events. In Lod, men and women marched wearing medals and carrying photographs of fallen soldiers, joined by partisan veterans, many of whom were over 90 years old. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended the ceremony at Yad Vashem, and lawmakers including Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver joined parades elsewhere.[7] In 2019, about 1,000 people joined an official Jerusalem march along Jaffa Road to Safra Square, with participants including Red Army veterans in decorated uniforms, Holocaust survivors, young people, public figures, and ambassadors; the march was postponed from May 9 that year because Israeli Independence Day coincided with the date.[17] The Israeli Ministry of Aliyah and Integration formally describes May 9 as a day to honor Second World War veterans, commemorate the Allied victory over Nazi German forces, and remember the signing of the German surrender documents.[18]

The COVID-19 pandemic forced changes in 2020: in-person marches were cancelled, and organizers instead held a virtual ceremony alongside a Jerusalem car procession that stopped at senior-citizen housing, where volunteers sang victory songs and distributed flowers from a safe distance — combining celebration with mourning for those lost in both the war and the Holocaust.[15]

A prominent physical memorial to the Soviet role in defeating Nazism is the Victory Monument in Netanya, jointly unveiled by Israeli President Shimon Peres and Russian President Vladimir Putin at an event co-sponsored by the Russian Jewish Congress.[8] Jewish leaders and approximately ten Red Army veterans attended. The monument was described by its organizers as the first time one state had erected a war memorial honoring another state's soldiers — a distinction that captures the ceremony's diplomatic as well as commemorative significance.[8]

The monument's design moves from a black-concrete, tunnel-like passage symbolizing the hardships and sacrifices of war to an open space overlooking the sea, with two large white-marble wings.[8] At the unveiling, Peres presented the ceremony as an opportunity to thank the Red Army for defeating Nazi Germany, while Putin thanked Peres for commemorating those who died in World War II.[8] The World Jewish Congress reported that more than half a million Jews fought in the Soviet Red Army during the war and estimates that 120,000 were killed.[8]

One of the recurring themes surrounding Israel's Victory Day observance is the relative invisibility of Jewish military service in broader Jewish collective memory. The Holocaust has dominated Jewish accounts of the World War II period, with the result that the contributions of Jews who served in the Allied armies are frequently overlooked.[4] Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day heroism narrative tends to emphasize ghetto rebels and partisans, further marginalizing the memory of conventional military service.[4]

A 2015 survey commissioned by Victory Day organizers and conducted by Dialogue among approximately 600 Jewish adults found that 92% of respondents could not name the number of Jews who fought in World War II — a figure the organizers gave as 1.5 million.[19] The same survey found that 42% of Jewish residents of Israel had relatives who fought in the war.[19] Some advocates have sought to reframe the commemoration to give it a broader Jewish — rather than primarily Russian-immigrant — identity. In 2015, organizers proposed anchoring the observance to 26 Iyar, the Hebrew calendar date they associated with May 9, 1945, arguing that Jewish soldiers' service deserved a place in Israeli public memory comparable to that given to partisan resistance and the Warsaw Ghetto revolt.[12]

A related but distinct initiative produced Liberation and Rescue Day, a Hebrew-calendar observance on 26 Iyar initiated in 2014 by businessman Gabriel German Zakharyev, described as a vice president of the Russian Jewish Congress, and established by law four years later.[20] This holiday is a Hebrew-calendar counterpart to Victory Day and should be distinguished from the statutory May 9 observance.

Personal stories preserved by the National Library of Israel give the broader statistics a human face. Sofia Zacharovna Golovinskaya served for more than a year in a Leningrad military firefighting unit during the siege, afterward trained in bomb removal, disarmed 750 mines, received a citation and five medals, and immigrated to Israel in 1994.[4] Captain Israel Danilovich Stackelberg, severely wounded in 1942, fell on the Leningrad front in 1944.[4]

Israel's gratitude for the Red Army's role in liberating Nazi-German concentration camps in Eastern Europe has formed an important part of the country's public relationship with Russia.[11] Prime Minister Netanyahu attended Russia's Victory Day parade in Moscow in 2018, an appearance the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) placed in the context of Israeli concerns about Iranian entrenchment in Syria and Israel's reliance in part on Russia there.[21]

The INSS also notes criticism from the United States and Europe that Israeli gestures — including Netanyahu's 2018 parade attendance and Putin's 2020 visit to Israel for the World Holocaust Forum — can help promote a Russian political narrative that East European countries view as undermining their sovereignty.[11] The INSS characterizes Russia's use of the Victory Day parade as politically instrumental, promoting militarism; it reports that Russians themselves have coined the term pobedobesiye, translated as "victory frenzy," to describe this militarized celebration.[21]

The tensions became acute in 2022. A diplomatic dispute arose over invitations to Israel's main Victory Day ceremony at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl National Cemetery, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine made the usual inclusion of Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors alongside other former Soviet-republic envoys politically charged. A source from the Absorption Minister's office indicated that sensitivities that year led to a decision not to invite ambassadors, while the ministry itself did not formally confirm the initial report.[22] MK Gilad Kariv publicly objected to any Russian representation at the ceremony.[22]

The 2018 central Jerusalem parade illustrated a different dimension of the commemoration's identity politics. Held on May 8 in the square outside the Knesset, the event drew around 600 participants, including veterans, siege survivors, former concentration-camp and ghetto prisoners, IDF soldiers, youth activists, and diplomats from 18 countries. MK Sofa Landver stated that veterans from all Allied armies had been invited, and organizers expressed concern that the event not be perceived as belonging exclusively to immigrants from the former USSR.[14]