Roman Abramovich pledges over £10m to Yad Vashem in new strategic partnership

Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich has launched a new partnership with Yad Vashem, pledging a donation believed to be in the region of £10m over the next five years.

The World Holocaust Remembrance Center announced the initiative on Tuesday, saying it will be used to bolster the work of Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research.

Launched in 1993, the Research Institute has been responsible for a range of Holocaust research initiatives for both commemorative and educational activities.

The donation will fund a new home for the International Research Institute on Yad Vashem’s Mount of Remembrance campus in Jerusalem.

Abramovich paid tribute to Yad Vashem’s continuing efforts to preserve the memory of Holocaust victims, saying it “is instrumental to ensure that future generations never forget what antisemitism, racism and hate can lead to if we don’t speak out.”

The partnership will also create two new versions of The Book of Names, a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust currently held in the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem.

One of the books will be permanently featured at Yad Vashem, while the second will be displayed all over the world as a mobile commemorative display.

Since 1993 Yad Vashem has collected and documented the names of more than 4,800,000 Holocaust victims.

Abramovich has a long history of donations to Israeli and Jewish causes. In 2018 he gave approximately £22m to pay for a new Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Tel Aviv University.

Thanking Abramovich, Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan said: “This partnership highlights his continued dedication to Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism and buttresses Yad Vashem’s determination to remain the gatekeeper of accurate, fact-based memory of the Shoah.”