WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday expressed alarm about rising antisemitism in the USA and across the globe and vowed to struggle again towards the scourge.
Talking to company gathered for a Hanukkah reception on the White Home, Biden mentioned “silence is complicity,” and added that it’s crucial that hate, violence and antisemitism are condemned by the nation.
“This 12 months’s Hanukkah arrives within the midst of rising and emboldened antisemitism at dwelling — and fairly frankly, world wide,” Biden mentioned. “I acknowledge your concern, your damage, your fear that this vile and venom is turning into too regular.”
The president added: “I can’t be silent. America won’t be silent.”
The vacation celebration comes throughout a spate of antisemitic episodes. Former President Donald Trump hosted a Holocaust-denying white supremacist at his Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Seaside, Florida. The rapper Ye expressed love for Adolf Hitler in an interview. Basketball star Kyrie Irving appeared to advertise an antisemitic movie on social media. Neo-Nazi trolls are clamoring to return to Twitter as new CEO Elon Musk grants “amnesty” to suspended accounts.
“Right now, we should all say clearly and forcefully: Antisemitism and all types of hate and violence on this nation don’t have any secure harbor in America,” Biden mentioned.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group, tracked 2,717 antisemitic cases of assault, harassment and vandalism final 12 months, a 34% enhance over the earlier 12 months and the very best quantity for the reason that New York Metropolis-based group started monitoring them in 1979.
Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, lately hosted a White Home dialogue on antisemitism and combating hate with Jewish leaders representing the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox denominations of the religion. On the occasion, Emhoff, who’s Jewish, mentioned he was “in ache proper now” over rising antisemitism.
Amongst these invited to Monday’s White Home occasion had been Holocaust survivor Bronia Brandman; Michele Taylor, who’s U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council and the daughter of Holocaust survivors; and Avigael Heschel-Aronson, the granddaughter of Jewish theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Additionally current was a rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker, who managed to usher his congregants to security throughout a synagogue hostage disaster earlier this 12 months. He credited safety coaching that his suburban Fort Value, Texas, congregation had acquired over time for getting him and the opposite three hostages by means of the traumatic, 11-hour ordeal.
On the White Home celebration, he famous that antisemitism was a rising downside in America however expressed thanks that many Individuals — together with Biden — are talking out.
“Antisemitism could also be on the rise, however thank God that persons are standing by our aspect,” mentioned Cytron-Walker, who’s now a rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
A menorah has been added to the White Home vacation assortment this 12 months, lit nightly through the eight-day Jewish pageant of Hanukkah. White Home carpenters constructed the menorah out of sterling silver candle cups and wooden that was saved from a Truman-era renovation.
Whereas the White Home has borrowed menorahs of particular significance prior to now, Biden mentioned the addition was wanted.
“This 12 months we thought it was necessary to have a good time Hanukkah with one other message of significance, permanence,” Biden mentioned. “The very promise of America is that all of us are created equal and should be handled equally all through our complete lives.”
