Biden warns against ‘resurgent tide of anti-Semitism’ on Holocaust Remembrance Day

President Biden warned against a “resurgent tide of anti-Semitism” in remarks on Holocaust Remembrance Day amid a surge in activity from far-right groups. 

“We must pass the history of the Holocaust on to our grandchildren and their grandchildren in order to keep real the promise of ‘never again.’ That is how we prevent future genocides,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday.

“Remembering the victims, heroes, and lessons of the Holocaust is particularly important today as Holocaust deniers and minimizers are growing louder in our public discourse,” he added. “But the facts are not up for question, and each of us must remain vigilant and speak out against the resurgent tide of anti-Semitism, and other forms of bigotry and intolerance, here at home and around the world.”

Biden pointed to the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., which he has repeatedly condemned. The country has grappled with the emergence of far-right groups at other more recent events, including the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill that featured neo-Nazis and others carrying Confederate flags.

Individual synagogues and Jewish cultural centers have also been targets of attacks in recent years, including most recently in Lexington, Ky., where a man allegedly shouted anti-Semitic remarks and ran a person over with his car during a Hanukkah celebration at a Jewish Student Center.

“The horrors we saw and heard in Charlottesville in 2017, with white nationalists and neo-Nazis spewing the same anti-Semitic bile we heard in the 1930s in Europe, are the reason I ran for president. Today, I recommit to the simple truth that preventing future genocides remains both our moral duty and a matter of national and global importance,” Biden said. 

The Anti-Defamation League found in a report last year that the American Jewish community experienced the highest level of anti-Semitic incidents in 2019 since tracking began in 1979, tallying at least 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism and harassment.