Democratic Majority for Israel’s CEO and President Mark Mellman issued the following statement today on behalf of Democratic Majority for Israel:

“Today, on Yom HaShoah, we remember those who perished during one of the darkest chapters in human history. Six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust as were millions of others, based on their ethnicity, sexuality, political or religious beliefs. We also honor those who resisted and fought against the Nazi regime.

“Saturday’s deadly hate crime at the Chabad synagogue of Poway, California — six months to the day after the attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — is a stark reminder that hatred of Jews remains a problem today, more than seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz and the founding of the State of Israel. Indeed, a new analysis from the ADL’s Center for Extremism reports that in the United States, the total number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2018 was 99% higher than just three years prior.

“As The New York Times warned in an editorial this week, ‘…anti-Zionism can clearly serve as a cover for anti-Semitism — and some criticism of Israel…is couched openly in anti-Semitic terms.’

“It is incumbent on every political leader in both parties to forcefully condemn anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry.”

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