Israeli actress Gal Gadot posted a touching tribute to her grandfather Abraham Weiss, a Holocaust survivor, on Instagram on Thursday to mark Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day for Israel and the Jewish people.
Gadot was one of many who used social media to mark the day, uploading a short video of herself greeting her grandfather at the premiere of Fast & Furious 5, which was released in 2011. Weiss died in late 2013 at age 85.
“I was looking for a photo of you all night on my phone but I couldn’t find one,” she wrote on Thursday. And then, she said, her assistant just happened to show her a video a fan uploaded recently.
“She had no idea today is the [H]olocaust [R]emembrance day, and didn’t know I was looking for a photo of him/us all night,” Gadot continued. “I wasn’t surprised.. My grandpa is always with me.. That’s not the first time he pops out of nowhere.”
The actress noted that her grandfather had “a special sense of humor” and was “always there for us. Even though he went thru [sic] hell. Lost his ENTIRE family in Auschwitz. He chose to believe in good.”
“I miss you saba. I love you”, she wrote as she explained it was her first time seeing the video and it brought tears to her eyes.
“As I think of you today, at this very moment of remembrance, which is also a call for all of us to act against discrimination of any kind. Anywhere in the world.”
The actress has posted several tributes to her grandfather before, usually on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Last year she called him her hero, and said that his “legacy is living with us forever.”
She shared more of his life story, including that he was born in 1928 in Munkacs in Czechoslovakia, which is now Ukraine. His entire family, she said, was killed “because someone had decided they were born into the wrong religion and race.” From him, she said, she learned “to love all people for what their heart is…Today we remember and never forget.”
Israeli model Bar Refaeli also used Instagram to commemorate the Holocaust, posting an image of six candles alongside a yellow star and the words “6 Million – We will never forget.”
“Always remember,” she wrote. “Never forget #holocaustrememberanceday.”