Pope Francis called on Monday for the eradication of anti-Semitism following an increase in attacks and hate crimes against Jews in several countries, and said it is vital to preserve the memory of the Holocaust.
Francis lamented current anti-Semitic attitudes as he greeted visiting rabbis from the World Congress of Mountain Jews from the Caucasus at the Vatican Monday. Mountain Jews are the descendants of Jews who left ancient Persia and settled in the Caucasus.
He did not mention last month's massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the worst attack ever against U.S. Jews.
Francis said the Holocaust, in which the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews around Europe, must continue to be commemorated to keep its memory alive.
"Without a living memory, there will be no future, for if the darkest pages of history do not teach us to avoid the same errors, human dignity will remain a dead letter," he said.
He mentioned the recent 75th anniversary of the deportation of Rome's Jews by the Nazi occupiers and the upcoming 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the "Night of the Broken Glass," when, on Nov. 9-10, 1938, Nazi supporters embarked on a nationwide pogrom across Germany and Austria, destroying almost 300 synagogues, shattering windows and damaging thousands of Jewish homes and businesses, rounding up 30,000 Jewish men to be taken to concentration camps, and killing several hundred people.
"Sadly, anti-Semitic attitudes are also present in our own times. As I have often repeated, a Christian cannot be an anti-Semite; we share the same roots," the pope said.
"We are called to commit ourselves to ensure anti-Semitism is banned from the human community."
