Speaking at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Days of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, President Joe Biden denounced a "ferocious" rise in antisemitism around the nation, issuing a stark warning that the world is at risk of forgetting the truth about the Holocaust and Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
“This ancient hatred of Jews didn’t begin with the Holocaust – it didn’t end with the Holocaust either, or even after our victory in World War II,” Biden said. “This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world and requires our continued vigilance and outspokenness.”
Every president dating back to the museum's opening in 1993 has delivered a keynote at a Days of Remembrance ceremony. But this year’s event took on new meaning as it came just seven months after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and marked the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
“That hatred was brought to life on Oct. 7 of 2023,” Biden said on Tuesday. “On the sacred Jewish holiday [of Simchat Torah], the terrorist group Hamas unleashed the deadliest day of the Jewish people since the Holocaust – driven by ancient desire to wipe out the Jewish people off the face of the earth.”
The president went on to describe how people were “slaughtered,” “massacred at a music festival,” and “brutally raped, mutilated, sexually assaulted” by Hamas that day – invoking language he used to describe Hamas’ actions often in the wake of the attack that has not been used as frequently since.
Biden then warned that the world appears to “already” be forgetting what sparked the war in Gaza seven months ago.
“Now, here we are, not 75 years later, but just seven-and-a-half months later and people are already forgetting, are already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror, it was Hamas that brutalized Israelis, it was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages,” Biden said.
“I have not forgotten, nor have you, and we will not forget,” the president emphasized.
On Tuesday morning, the Biden administration announced new steps to build on the first National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, released one year ago. The new actions include a letter sent to school districts and colleges outlining antisemitic discrimination that could lead to investigations and the creation by the Department of Homeland Security of an online campus safety resources guide for schools.
Biden has faced pressure internationally and from some at home over his continued support of Israel as the Palestinian death toll has risen and the humanitarian crisis worsened amid Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza.
In the wake of the killing of seven aid workers for World Central Kitchen by an Israeli strike in Gaza, last month Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that U.S. policy toward the war could change if Israel does not take actions to better address the humanitarian situation and protect civilians, according to the White House.
This week, Israel appeared to take initial steps to start a long-promised ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million civilians are sheltering – a move the Biden administration opposes without a plan to protect civilians.
Nonetheless, Biden has been steadfast in vocalizing his commitment to Israel’s security – a point he reiterated on Tuesday
“My commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad, even when we disagree,” Biden said.
The speech comes amid a rise of antisemitism nationwide in the wake of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. A recent report from the Anti-Defamation League showed that incidents of antisemitism reached an all-time high in 2023, with a spike coming in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Protests over Israel and Biden’s approach to the war in Gaza have engulfed college campuses in recent weeks, resulting in more than 2,300 arrests and leaving some Jewish students to say they feel unsafe on campus.
“On college campuses, Jewish students blocked, harassed, attacked while walking to class,” Biden said on Tuesday.
“Too many people denying, downplaying, rationalizing, ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and Oct. 7, including Hamas’ appalling use of sexual violence to torture and terrorize Jews – its absolutely despicable and it must stop,” he continued.
After facing questions about whether he would address the demonstrations on campuses for days – particularly after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., visited Columbia University to condemn the protests and call on Biden to visit himself – the president delivered brief remarks from the White House on Thursday of last week in which he noted Americans have the right to protest peacefully but emphasized there is no place for hate in America.
“Whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans, it’s simply wrong,” Biden said last week. “There’s no place for racism in America. It’s all wrong, it’s un-American.”
Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., also spoke at Tuesday’s event at the Capitol.
The remarks came one day after Yom HaShoah — the Hebrew phrase for Holocaust Remembrance Day – which commemorates the six million Jews murdered by Nazis during the Holocaust.
Biden marked Yom HaShoah in a call with Netanyahu on Monday in which the leaders jointly pledged to “remember the six million Jews who were systematically targeted and murdered in the Holocaust” and “forcefully act against antisemitism and all forms of hate-fueled violence,” according to a readout from the White House.
Spectrum News' Justin Tasolides contributed to this report.