The Valley of the Communities, Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Israel

The Valley of the Communities spreads across a large area of natural bedrock with massive stone walls bearing engravings of more than 5000 community names. Narrow paths guide visitors through a maze of stone, creating the sense of walking through an archive carved into the landscape.

The idea arose in 1977 from a meeting between Yad Vashem chairman Yitzhak Arad and Eli Zborowski of the American Society for Yad Vashem. Landscape architects Lipa Yahalom and Dan Zur, both Israel Prize laureates, were asked in 1979 to propose a memorial to 5,000 destroyed communities. The cornerstone was laid in 1983; the first section opened on 26 April 1987 and the complex was completed on 14 October 1992.

The arrangement of stone walls follows the geographic pattern of where Jewish communities lived across Europe and North Africa before the Second World War. Walking between the walls, visitors can sense the spatial distribution of these lost worlds.

The Valley is part of the Yad Vashem complex and can be explored during a visit to the memorial site. Visitors should wear comfortable shoes as the terrain is uneven and requires walking between stone formations.

The engraved names are not those of individuals but of entire communities, each with their own traditions, institutions, and ways of life. This transforms each name into a symbol for thousands of people and their erased worlds.