The Jewish people is one that remembers its past. However, while we have a duty not only to remember Nazi atrocities but also to remind the world of the lessons of history, to ensure a better future for humanity as a whole.
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A year ago, 50 world leaders convened at the President's Residence and at Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center to underscore our shared commitment to remember the Holocaust and fight anti-Semitism.
Since that historic gathering, a global pandemic has befallen us. This pandemic has claimed the lives of 900 Holocaust survivors in Israel, who passed away in solitude. The loss of these lives – lives of struggle, survival, and revival in the Jewish state – is too hard to bear.
The global pandemic has brought with it social distancing and it has forced countries to close their borders. However, it has also reminded us of our humanity and the need to work together to rise to a challenge.
Just as the coronavirus has forced countries to work together to defeat it, so do the viruses of anti-Semitism and xenophobia require us to join forces against them.
We must show zero tolerance toward any form of anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia, regardless of whether they rear their heads in the street, online, or in the centers of power.
Unfortunately, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial continue to spread around the world. Under the auspices of the coronavirus pandemic, more and more anti-Semitic conspiracy theories were born, and we continue to see attacks against synagogues and Jewish institutions.
This year, too, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, one of the most terrible symbols of the darkest period in human history, we pledge to continue to remind the world – and continue to work with the free world to make our oath of "Never Again" a common reality.
May the memory of our six million brothers and sisters, men, women and children, be blessed.
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