Dani Dayan Appointed Chairman of Yad Vashem

Dani Dayan was appointed chairman of Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. The Israeli government approved Dayan’s appointment on Sunday, Yad Vashem announced in a statement.

Dayan, 65, was most recently Israel’s Consul General in New York from 2016 until 2020. Previously, he served as chairman of the YESHA Council and before that served as chairman of the board and CEO of Elad Software Systems Ltd., a company that he founded. He is formerly a member of the Yad Vashem Council.

He ran for the Knesset this year as part of Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope Party, but the party did not receive enough votes for Dayan to gain a seat in the government.

“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,” Dayan said. “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,” he added.

He replaces Avner Shalev, who retired in February after more than 20 years int he position.