The Israeli government on Sunday confirmed the appointment of Israel’s former Consul General in New York Dani Dayan as the new chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate.
Dayan, 65, served as Israel’s consul general in New York from 2016 until 2020. He previously served as chairman of the YESHA Council, as well as chairman of the board and CEO of Elad Software Systems Ltd., which he founded.
Dayan said that “leading Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, is more than a position; it is a mission, and one I take on with awe and reverence. Yad Vashem is not just a commemorative endeavor. On our shoulders rests the responsibility to research and educate, to document and disseminate, to validate fact-based historical truths about the Holocaust and reject all forms of distortion in order to safeguard the memory of the Shoah, and to ensure that the Jewish people and humanity will forever continue to remember this event.”
Dayan will replace Avner Shalev, the chairman of Yad Vashem from 1993 until his retirement in June 2020.