Yom HaShoah
/ˌjɑːm həˈʃoʊ.ə/noun
The annual Jewish day of remembrance for the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust.
Did you know?The Hebrew word Shoah means “catastrophe” or “devastation,” and many Jews prefer it to “Holocaust,” whose Greek-rooted meaning can suggest a sacrificial offering consumed by fire.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Semitic
Proto-Semitic
*yawm-
“Day; the daylight period”
Biblical Hebrew
Hebrew
יוֹם (yom)
“Day or a designated time”
Biblical Hebrew
Hebrew
שׁוֹאָה (sho'ah)
“Ruin, devastation, calamity, or desolation”
20th Century
Modern Hebrew
יוֹם הַשּׁוֹאָה (Yom HaShoah)
“Day of the Catastrophe; the emerging Hebrew designation for Holocaust remembrance”
1953
Israeli Hebrew
יוֹם הַזִּכָּרוֹן לַשּׁוֹאָה וְלַגְּבוּרָה
“The Knesset established the official observance, formally meaning Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day”
Modern English
English
Yom HaShoah
“An internationally recognized Jewish commemoration, observed in Israel on 27 Nisan”
Explore more surprising origins