What is the Meaning of Righteous Among the Nations?
You may have heard the term righteous gentile or righteous among the nations and wandered if there was some type of definition for this title. This is not an arbitrary term but an official state sponsored honor awarded by the Jerusalem Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, on behalf of the State of Israel. There are certain criteria that must be met to receive this title. The general concept of awarding this title is to honor gentiles who rescued or saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Statistics of righteous among the nations that have been awarded during the years is interesting but not telling. The numbers do not necessarily reflect the attitudes held by the general population during the war years nor do they reflect the number of Jews that were actually rescued or the total number of rescuers. This is because many of the righteous are unknown and therefore the statistics only represent how many titles have been awarded and no particular historical facts. Most of the awards were given t
