The Valley of the Communities in Yad Vashem is a massive 2.5 acre monument literally dug out of natural bedrock. Over 5000 names of communities are engraved on the stone walls in the Valley of the Communities. Each name recalls a Jewish community which existed for hundreds of years; for the inhabitants, each community constituted an entire world. Today, in most cases, nothing remains but the name.

The Valley was excavated out of the earth-nothing was built above ground. It is as if what had been built up on the surface of the earth over the course of a millennium-a thousand years of Jewish communal life- was suddenly swallowed up The names of the communities are engraved on the 107 walls which roughly corresponds to the geographic arrangement of the map of Europe and North Africa. The names of the communities are engraved and commemorated on the walls in the Valley for future generations who will identify with the memories and find their roots.

The establishment of the Valley of the Communities was in accordance with the Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Law (1953) under which Yad Vashem was established; which states clearly that communities, synagogues, movements, and organizations, public, cultural, educational, religious, and charitable institutions were to be commemorated at Yad Vashem.

The ground breaking for the Valley took place in October 1983 . The inauguration ceremony took place at Yad Vashem in October 1992.

The idea of commemorating the communities was conceived by then Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, Yitzhak Arad and head of the American Society for Yad Vashem, Eli Zborowski. Their dream was realized in the visionary design of architects Lipa Yahalom and Dan Tzur and was made possible thanks to the contributions of the American Sociey for Yad Vashem , survivor organizations and generous donors from around the world.

At the entrance to the Valley is the inscription: “This memorial commemorates the Jewish communities destroyed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and the few which suffered but survived in the shadow of the Holocaust. For more than one thousand years, Jews lived in Europe, organizing communities to preserve their distinct identity. In periods of relative tranquility, Jewish culture flourished, but in periods of unrest, Jews were forced to flee. Wherever they settled, they endowed the people amongst whom they lived with their talents. Here their stories will be told..”

To see a map of Yad Vashem, click here.
To see other building projects in progress at Yad Vashem, click here.