US President Joe Biden said “America will not be silent” as he slammed antisemitism at a White House party to commemorate the second day of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.
Addressing the party on Monday, Biden said: “I will not be silent and America will not be silent.”
The President noted that he was speaking to the crowd “in the midst of a rising emboldened of antisemitism at home, and quite frankly around the world”, reports the BBC.
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“I recognize your fear, your hurt. You’re worried that this violent venom is becoming too normal. As your president, I want to make this clear: As my dad would say, and many of you have said, silence is complicity. We must not remain silent.”
This year’s holiday comes amid a rise in antisemitic violence and crime. According to an April report by the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish anti-hate monitor, there were 2,717 antisemitic incidents in the US last year — a 34 percent increase from 2020 and the highest total since the group began tracking such incidents in 1979.
This year, the White House is also displaying its own menorah — the candleholder that Jews light for eight consecutive nights — for the first time.
The National Menorah is also lit outside the White House each year. As he unveiled the first-ever permanent White House menorah, Biden said: “This year we thought it was important to celebrate Hanukkah with another message of significance… Permanence. Permanence.” He added said that “evil” and “hate” would not prevail in the US.
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