Washington, D.C. (April 27, 2022) — Democratic Majority for Israel’s CEO and President Mark Mellman issued the following statement today:
“Today, on Yom HaShoah, we pause to honor and remember the more than six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators during one of the darkest chapters in human history. We also commemorate the brave men and women whose resistance in the face of unspeakable consequences helped rescue and save countless others.
“After Hitler’s ascent to power, the Nazi regime — using every mechanism of the German state to eliminate any person ‘of Jewish blood’ — developed and implemented a systematic, industrialized policy of genocide that succeeded in murdering six million Jews, as well as millions of others, based on their ethnicity, sexuality, differing abilities, and beliefs.
“While our thoughts today center on the atrocities of the past, memory cannot only be an intellectual or even emotional exercise detached from our current reality. More than seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz and the founding of the State of Israel, Jews around the world still commonly face prejudice and discrimination. To remember the Holocaust is to be called to action in the fight against such antisemitism — and bigotry of every form — wherever it rears its ugly head.
“In the past year, the Anti-Defamation League recorded more incidents of antisemitism in the United States, including harassment and vandalism, than any year since it began keeping track in 1979. The ADL attributes much of this increase as retaliation against American Jews for last year’s conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza, a disturbing trend that highlights the undeniable link between antisemitism and anti-Israelism.
“Now, more than ever, we must speak out publicly and privately against hate and intolerance, while continuing to urge political and civic leaders to condemn Jew hatred and every form of bigotry.”
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